LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

O-IKT  OK 

^ 

Received  ^Z^^.  ,  i8g  *7 . 

Accession  No.  fc&<~tf JL^      Class  No.  *]£. 


GOD  AND  THE  FUTURE  LIFE 


THE 


REASONABLENESS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 


BY  CHAKLES  ^ORDHOFF 

AUTHOR  OF 

"POLITICS  FOR  YOUNG  AMERICANS"  "CAPE  COD  AND  ALL  ALONG  SHORE' 
"THE  COMMUNISTIC  SOCIETIES  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES*'  ETC. 


NEW  YORK 

HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  FRANKLIN  SQUARE 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1883,  by 

HARPER  &  BROTHERS, 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  "Washington. 


All  rights  reserved. 


TO  PARENTS  AND  TEACHERS. 


THEOLOGY"  has  been  defined  as  that 
department  of  study  which  treats  of  the  existence 
and  attributes  of  God  as  these  are  revealed  to  us  in 
the  world  of  nature. 

Many  eminent  men  —  not  only  theologians  but 
scientists — have  written  treatises  of  natural  theology, 
and  the  work  of  Paley,  the  most  famous  of  this  kind, 
was  for  a  long  period  one  of  the  books  which  young 
people  were  expected  to  read ;  it  was  commonly  used 
as  a  text-book  in  my  own  school-days.  It  is  now 
thought  to  be  out  of  date,  and  is  no  longer  seen  in 
schools,  and  not  often  in  households ;  but  it  remains, 
in  my  belief,  a  valuable,  as  it  is  certainly  an  in- 
teresting book,  not  only  for  youth,  but  for  mature 
men  and  women. 

If  I  venture  to  offer  here  another  book  on  Natural 
Religion,  this  is  because  I  have  seen  that  Paley's 
and  other  well-known  works,  written  before  recent 
and  very  important  discoveries  and  new  theories  in 
science,  do  not  entirely  meet  the  questions  which 
not  only  our  young  people,  but  many  of  their 
thoughtful  elders,  nowadays  ask. 


4  TO   PARENTS  AND  TEACHERS. 

But  I  have  also  another  reason  for  venturing  upon 
this  field,  and  it  seems  to  me  a  very  important  one. 
Those  whose  thoughts  are  already  interested  in  these 
questions — of  God  and  a  Future  Life — form  but  a 
part  of  the  community.  There  is  another,  and  not 
a  small  part,  which  takes  little  or  no  interest  in  such 
thoughts.  The  burden  and  pressure  of  life  are  so 
great,  the  temptations  to  merely  worldly  living  are 
so  increasingly  powerful,  in  our  days,  that,  among 
young  people  particularly,  we  see  too  many  who  re- 
fuse to  take  any  account  of  the  future  life,  but  be- 
come absorbed  in  the  ambitions  and  pleasures  of  the 
present. 

I  confess  that  a  main  stimulus  to  the  writing  of 
the  present  work  was  my  hope  that  it  might  attract 
the  attention  of  such  persons,  whether  young  or  old, 
and  turn  their  eyes  upon  a  larger,  broader,  and  juster 
view  of  life. 

It  remains  true,  also,  that,  whether  we  wish  it  or 
not,  young  people,  and  many  older  ones  too,  are  wor- 
ried with  doubts  and  fears  which  did  not  trouble  the 
Christian  world  half  a  century  ago.  Science — the 
inquiry  into  natural  phenomena  and  their  "  laws  " — 
has  been  "  popularized,"  as  the  phrase  goes,  and  some 
men  assert,  and  many  ignorantly  believe,  that  there 
has  arisen  a  "  conflict  between  science  and  religion ;" 
which  is  as  though  one  should  assert  that  there  is 
a  conflict  between  the  multiplication  table  and  the 
higher  geometry.  Still,  this  supposed  "  conflict "  is 


TO  PARENTS  AND  TEACHERS.  5 

undoubtedly  a  terror  to  many  good  men  and  women, 
who  imagine  that  religion  is  in  danger  from  the 
advance  of  science;  and  who  close  their  eyes  and 
refuse  to  reason  about  the  existence  of  God  and  the 
Future  Life,  because  they  fear  that  that  way  lies  loss 
of  Faith.  So  strong  and  wide-spread  is  this  fear, 
that  I  have  been  warned  by  friends  who  approve 
entirely  of  the  objects  and  are  kind  enough  also  to 
praise  the  execution  of  iny  little  book,  that  it  will 
be  kept  out  of  some  Christian  households,  because 
"  the  parents  do  not  wish  their  young  people  to 
consider  such  matters." 

One  ought  not  to  treat  disrespectfully  such  fears, 
although  they  are  needless.  Mistaken  as  they  are, 
they  have  their  origin  in  an  anxious  solicitude  for 
the  moral  and  spiritual  welfare  of  their  children, 
which  conscientious  parents  are  bound  to  feel.  But 
to  those  who  are  subject  to  such  alarms  it  is  proper 
to  say  here  that  I  would  rather  burn  my  book  than 
place  even  a  slight  stumbling-block  in  the  way  of  a 
single  human  being's  religious  faith.  The  main  ob- 
ject of  my  writing  has  been,  on  the  contrary,  to  re- 
vive and  strengthen  this  faith;  and  the  book  has 
grown  largely  out  of  an  earnest  wish  to  maintain  and 
invigorate  in  my  own  young  people,  and  the  chil- 
dren of  dear  friends,  that  hope  and  confident  Chris- 
tian faith  in  God  and  immortality  which  is,  in  my 
belief,  the  chief  and  only  true  solace  for  the  trouble 
of  living  here. 


6  TO  PAKENTS  AND  TEACHERS. 

We  cannot,  if  we  would,  prevent  our  young  peo- 
ple from  discussing  these  questions.  But  surely  no 
thoughtful  father  or  mother  would  like  to  see  son 
or  daughter  grow  up  without  thought  of  them.  The 
more  intelligent  youth  are,  the  wider  their  read- 
ing and  study,  the  more  certain  they  are  to  ask 
and  discuss.  It  seems  to  me  of  great  importance 
that  their  questions  should  have  answer ;  that  their 
discussions  should  be  reasonable  and  well-informed. 
In  that  way,  at  least,  they  are  the  more  certain  to 
maintain  a  living  interest  in  these  profoundly  im- 
portant matters,  which  otherwise  they  may,  as  many 
do,  put  aside  and  out  of  their  minds,  as  things  which 
they  "  may  leave  to  the  clergy,"  or  which  "  do  not 
concern  them."  The  way  to  inspire  our  youth  with 
the  Christian  faith  in  God  and  immortality  is,  it 
seems  to  me,  to  meet  their  inquiries  frankly,  to  wel- 
come them  as  reasonable,  proper,  and  tending,  if  pur- 
sued in  an  honest  and  respectful  spirit,  only  to  the 
firmer  establishment  of  that  right  thinking  out  of 
which  alone  can  grow  right  living :  "  for  he  that 
cometh  to  God  must  believe  that  He  is ;  and  that  He 
is  a  rewarder  of  them  that  diligently  seek  him." 

I  believe,  then,  that  he  who  asks,  as  so  many  are 
doing  in  these  days — secretly  oftener  than  openly — 
whether  or  no  there  is  really  a  God  wrho  not  only 
created  but  who  also  continues  to  care  for  the  affairs 
and  inhabitants  of  this  world,  has  at  least  taken  a 
first  important  step.  He  shows  that  he  thinks  the 


TO   PARENTS  AND  TEACHERS.  7 

matter  worth  an  inquiry,  and  he  deserves  an  answer 
from  those  who  believe. 

He  who  asks  whether  there  is  a  Future  Life  shows 
by  his  question  at  least  some  interest  in  what  is  a 
supremely  important  matter  to  us  all.  He  ought  to 
be  encouraged  and  not  reproved  for  his  curiosity. 
It  would  be  a  pity  to  have  him  come  to  a  wrong 
conclusion ;  but  in  my  belief  it  would  be  very  much 
worse  if  he  took  no  interest  in  the  question  at  all — 
if  he  thought  it  a  matter  of  no  concern  or  no  impor- 
tance to  him. 

"  What  is  Life  ?"  is  a  question  now,  more  than  ever 
before,  engaging  the  attention  of  thoughtful  men  and 
women.  In  this  problem  x  may  represent  that  un- 
known quantity,  lying  outside  of  our  knowledge  and 
experience,  which  is  the  subject  of  this  speculation 
and  inquiry. 

There  are  those  who  assert  that  x  =  0. 

So  far  it  is  absolutely  certain  that  no  one  has 
proved  this  proposition.  No  one  has  been  able  to 
demonstrate  that  x  is  equal  to  zero. 

Neither  (aside  from  Revelation),  it  must  be  grant- 
ed, has  any  one  been  able  to  scientifically  prove  the 
converse — that  x=&  continuous  and  conscious  pro- 
longation of  our  lives  after  the  death  of  the  body. 

In  fact,  x  is  in  this  case  not  only  an  unknown  but 
an  unknowable  quantity. 

There  are  many  such  in  physics;  but  that  does 
not  prevent  science  from  dealing  with  them.  No 


8  TO   PARENTS  AND  TEACHERS. 

one  has  seen,  or  in  any  other  way  physically  appre- 
hended, an  atom  or  a  molecule.  Yet  a  great  body 
of  science  deals  fearlessly  with  these  unknown  and 
unknowable  quantities,  and  comes  to  sufficiently  sen- 
sible conclusions.  In  such  matters  science  does  not 
think  it  unreasonable  to  reason,  because  science  holds, 
from  a  wide  experience,  that  the  material  universe 
is  based  on  laws,  some  known  and  many  others  still 
unknown  to  us ;  but — and  this  is  the  fundamental 
proposition  on  which  all  science  rests — that  there  is 
a  general  consistence  and  harmony  of  things,  so  that 
from  a  careful  scrutiny  and  comparison  of  known 
phenomena  science  may  not  only  discover  the  "  laws," 
so  called,  on  which  they  proceed,  but  may,  moreover, 
confidently  predicate  still  other  phenomena  and  other 
laws,  having  regard  to  what  still  remains  unknown. 

Thus,  in  the  language  of  the  apostle  Paul,  "The  in- 
visible things  of  Him  from  the  creation  of  the  world 
are  clearly  seen,  being  understood  ~by  ike  things  that 
are  made" 

Out  of  the  entirely  legitimate  speculations  of 
science  are  thus  born  hypotheses  which,  if  they  are 
found  to  conform  with  general  accuracy  to  known 
phenomena  and  laws,  become  theories. 

Now,  the  processes  which  are  thus  legitimate  when 
used  by  scientific  investigators  in  the  ascertainment 
of  merely  material,  and  therefore  secondary,  matters, 
cannot  become  illegitimate  if  they  are  applied  also 
to  the  very  highest  relations  of  all,  those  which  con- 


TO   PARENTS  AND  TEACHERS.  9 

cern  our  nobler  part — the  mind  or  spirit — and  the 
settlement  of  which  must  necessarily  control  the 
conduct  of  our  lives:  for  Paul  reasoned  logically 
when  he  said,  "  If  after  the  manner  of  men  I  have 
fought  with  beasts  at  Ephesus,  what  advantageth  it 
me  if  the  dead  rise  not  ?  let  us  eat  and  drink,  for 
to-morrow  we  die." 

"  No  man  hath  seen  God  with  his  eyes  at  any  time 
in  this  life,"  and  so  no  one  has  seen  an  atom  of 
matter. 

It  is  not  possible  to  demonstrate  scientifically  that 
the  soul  of  man  may  have  continued  life  after  the 
death  of  the  body. 

jBut  neither  is  it  possible  to  demonstrate  the  con- 
trary. 

The  defender  of  the  atomic  theory  supports  it, 
because  he  finds  that  it  gives  a  sensible  explanation 
and  justification  of  a  multitude  of  known  phenom- 
ena, and  is  consistent  with  well  ascertained  "  natural 
laws."  In  like  manner  the  theory  of  the  existence 
of  God,  and  the  reality  of  a  future  life,  finds  its 
justification  in  all  that  is  now  ascertained  of  the 
material  universe,  and  of  human  life  on  this  planet. 

It  is  in  strict  harmony  with  all  we  know;  while 
the  opposite  hypothesis  introduces  confusion,  and 
may  for  that  reason  be  held,  scientifically,  to  be  in 
the  highest  degree  improbable — until  at  least  some 
slight  evidence  for  it  shall  be  produced. 

The  book  which  follows  was  written  for  young 


10         TO  PARENTS  AND  TEACHERS. 

people,  and  I  have  used  the  direct  and  familiar  ad- 
dress with  which  one  naturally  speaks  to  youth. 
But,  as  I  have  been  unusually  frank  in  this  preface, 
I  will  here  add  that  I  hope  to  have  for  my  readers 
not  only  young  people,  but  some  of  mature  years  as 
well.  There  are,  alas !  very  many  men  and  women 
in  these  days  whose  faith  is  feeble  and  uncertain, 
a  source  of  discomfort  to  them  rather  than  of  joy : 
to  some  such  I  hope  my  little  book  may  prove 
helpful. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAP. 

INTRODUCTION 13 

I.    THE  IMPORTANCE  OF  FAITH .      .  17 

II.    THE  REASONABLENESS  OF  RELIGIOUS  FAITH      ...  23 

III.  WHAT  ARE   YOU  ? 31 

IV.  YOU  ARE  AN  INDIVIDUAL 35 

V.    THE  NECESSITY  OF  A  LIVING  FAITH 42 

VI.     FAITH  AND  SCIENCE 53 

VII.    SCIENCE  AND  THE  FUTURE  LIFE 61 

VIII.    THE  LIMITS  OF  SPECULATION 75 

IX.    MORAL  AS  WELL  AS  PHYSICAL  LAWS 82 

X.    THE  BEBLE  AS   A  BOOK 96 

XI.    THE  MYSTERY  OF  PAIN 103 

XII.    THE  LIMIT  OF  AUTHORITY 115 

XIII.  MIRACLES 126 

XIV.  NATURE  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE 139 

XV.    PRAYER 159 

XVI.    CONDUCT  OF  LIFE 172 

xvii.   CONDUCT  OF  LIFE  (continued) 186 

NOTES  .                                                                              .  211 


GOD  AND  THE  FUTUEE  LIFE. 


INTKODUCTIOK 

MY  DEAR  CHILDREN, — Some  of  you  are  now  at 
the  age  when  you  are  about  to  leave  the  hands  of 
the  pious  mother  who  has  carefully  and  lovingly 
instructed  you  in  your  Christian  duties,  and  tried  to 
fix  you  in  correct  habits  of  life.  She  has  taught 
you  that  the  Christian  religion  prescribes  the  true 
rule  of  living;  that  the  practices  it  inculcates  are 
necessary  for  the  proper  conduct  of  your  life  here, 
and  for  happy  development  in  a  life  hereafter ;  that 
you  should  regard  God  as  a  loving  Father,  and  his 
commands  as  the  rule  of  your  conduct. 

As  you  emerge  from  the  kindly  shelter  of  her  af- 
fections and  enter  upon  the  world,  the  first  challenge 
you  receive  is  a  challenge  of  this  faith  which,  as 
children,  you  have  been  accustomed  to  regard  as  not 
only  sacred  but  undisputed.  It  has  been  a  surprise 
to  the  elder  of  you  to  discover  that  the  Christian 


14  GOD  AND  THE  FUTUKE  LIFE. 

world,  so  called,  consists  nowadays,  in  the  main,  not 
of  good  and  bad  believers — of  persons  all  or  nearly 
all  of  whom  are  agreed  to  accept  the  Christian  doc- 
trines and  theory  of  life,  and  differ  only  in  the  man- 
ner and  degree  to  which  their  common  belief  influ- 
ences and  controls  their  lives — but  that  it  contains 
an  increasing  number  of  more  or  less  intelligent  and 
well-intending  people,  who,  silently  or  openly,  repu- 
diate this  common  belief,  and  deny  or  doubt  the 
fundamental  tenets  of  the  Christian  faith,  the  ex- 
istence of  God,  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul. 

You  cannot  live  in  the  world  and  remain  ignorant 
of,  or  unaffected  by,  this  doubt  and  unbelief  which 
are  sweeping  through  Christendom.  You  will  en- 
counter them  at  every  step.  In  much  that  you  will 
read,  if  you  are  to  be  intelligent  men  and  women, 
and  in  the  conversation  of  thoughtful  as  well  as  of 
frivolous  people,  but  still  more  in  the  conduct  and 
policy  of  a  great  multitude  of  the  thoughtless,  you 
will  be  forced  to  see,  if  you  think  on  so  important  a 
matter  at  all,  that  the  theory  of  life  propounded  by 
Jesus  is  either  rejected,  or,  in  much  the  greater  num- 
ber of  cases,  is  held  in  a  perfunctory  manner,  as  a 
kind  of  vague  Sunday  faith  which  has  little  applica- 
tion to,  or  influence  on,  every-day  life. 

It  is  not  easy  to  live  in  the  world  and  not  be  af- 
fected by  its  thoughts  and  customs.  Man  is  a  social 


INTRODUCTION.  15 

being ;  and  you  will  find  nothing  in  your  life  so  dif- 
ficult as  to  remain  unmoved  by  the  spirit  of  those 
among  whom  you  live,  or  to  resist  the  subtle  influ- 
ence of  the  habits  and  thoughts  of  those  about  you. 
You  may  see,  every  day,  how  even  strong  men  have 
their  notions  of  right  and  wrong  warped  by  the  gen- 
eral course  of  the  society  in  which  they  are  cast ; 
how  easily  we  drift  with  the  general  current ;  how, 
insensibly  to  themselves,  men's  lives  are  shaped,  their 
conduct  changed,  their  resolves  weakened,  by  the 
force  of  social  forms  and  habits.  You  need  great 
powers  of  resistance  to  withstand  such  influences; 
and  you  need  to  help  you,  as  I  shall  endeavor  to 
make  plain  to  you  in  what  follows,  the  conservative 
force  which  we  can  get  only  from  positive  religious 
convictions  so  strongly  held  as  to  exert  a  constant 
and  mastering  influence  over  our  thoughts  and 
aims. 

It  is  proper  and  necessary  to  your  real  happiness, 
not  only  -hereafter  but  in  this  life,  that  each  one  of 
you  shall  live  his  own  life ;  that  you  shall  establish 
a  personal,  individual  existence  as  a  man  or  woman ; 
because  otherwise  you  would  become,  as  too  many 
do,  merely  an  insignificant  fragment  of  a  great  mass, 
surging  hither  and  thither  on  the  motion  of  vague 
or  blind  general  impulses,  the  sport  of  circumstances, 
or  of  stronger  wTills  than  your  own. 


16  GOD  AND  THE    FUTURE  LIFE. 

It  is  not  necessary  that  you  should  be  rich,  or  pow- 
erful, or  famous ;  these  incidents  are  far  more  a  hin- 
derance  than  a  help  to  a  true  life.  There  is  no  place 
in  society,  however  low,  in  which  a  man  or  woman 
may  not,  with  effort,  live  an  individual  life  ;  and  this 
I  conceive  to  be  the  most  important  of  all  to  us,  be- 
cause it  is  as  individuals,  as  substantive  personalities, 
if  at  all,  that  we  are  to  live  in  the  future  life ;  not  as 
undivided  and  undistinguishable  fragments  of  some 
vast  chaotic  mass  of  life.  Your  bodies  may  be  swept 
hither  and  thither  on  the  uncontrollable  waves  of 
society  and  events ;  but  it  is  your  spiritual  part,  your 
souls,  which  have  the  only  real  importance. 

Your  soul — if  you  have  one — that  is  you ;  and  it 
was  because  he  saw  that  the  training  toward  higher 
things  of  this  spiritual  and  immortal  part  was  the 
one  matter  of  supreme  and  overshadowing  impor- 
tance, that  the  great  teacher  Arnold  of  Rugby  wrote 
that  "  the  only  thing  of  moment  in  life  or  in  man  is 
character." 

The  body  is  like  the  clothes  you  put  on  it.  The 
soul  is  the  man. 

If  we  have  this  individuality  of  which  I  speak,  if 
we  have  souls  or  spiritual  parts  capable  of  existence 
hereafter  and  beyond  death,  surely  it  is  our  most  im- 
portant labor  here  to  preserve,  to  train,  and  improve 
this  nobler  and  only  substantial  part  of  ourselves. 


THE  IMPORTANCE   OF  FAITH.  17 


THE  IMPORTANCE  OF  FAITH. 

THE  future — that  which  is  to  come — even  in  this 
life,  is  to  us  dark  and  impenetrable ;  hence  we  speak 
of  "  faith."  We  cannot  foreknow  ;  hence  we  speak 
of  "  believing." 

Nothing  is  more  universally  and  absolutely  true 
than  that  we  "walk  by  faith."  Even  in  the  af- 
fairs of  this  life  the  doubter  is  weak;  the  success- 
ful, the  powerful  men  are  those  who  take  much 
upon  trust.  They  study  the  laws  of  trade,  of  nat- 
ure, or  of  the  human  mind;  and  they  make  their 
ventures,  or  plan  their  course,  not  because  they  can 
foresee  details  or  certainly  foretell  results,  not  be- 
cause they  can  grasp  all  the  elements;  but  in  the 
faith  that,  with  proper  effort  on  their  parts,  and 
working  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  nature  and 
of  human  nature,  success  will  follow. 

No  great  worldly  success  even  is  gained  without 
a  large  and  inspiring  faith  in  him  who  is  to  gain 
it.  No  man  has  conquered  difficulties,  or  overcome 
serious  obstacles,  who  has  not  known  times  in  the 

2 


18  GOD  AND  THE  FUTURE  LIFE. 

struggle  when  all  the  facts  and  all  the  force  of 
events  seemed  to  be  against  him,  and  when,  but 
for  his  belief  in  the  lawfulness  of  his  cause,  or  in 
the  care  and  skill  with  which  his  enterprise  was 
planned,  he  would  have  given  up.  The  weak,  who 
falter  and  run  away,  are  those  who  lack  faith  in 
this  general  sense.  The  commander  who  believes 
he  is  going  to  be  beaten  is  beaten  already ;  the  mer- 
chant who  expects  failure  is  crippled  in  advance : 
it  is  the  man  who  believes  who  does  the  impossi- 
ble; and  even  in  this  merely  worldly  sense  it  is 
true  that  by  faith  men  have  removed  mountains. 

The  immediate  future  in  our  lives  is  so  impen- 
etrable to  all  of  us  that  we  constantly  need  to 
"  walk  by  faith "  even  in  the  commonest  enter- 
prises, and  "  Nothing  venture  nothing  win "  is  a 
proverb. 

A  prudent  man  planning  an  enterprise  begins  by 
examining  all  its  elements,  all  the  obstacles  in  his  way, 
all  the  details  likely  to  make  for  or  against  his  success ; 
but  if  he  is  wise,  he  above  all  things  takes  care  that 
what  he  proposes  shall  be  in  harmony  with  natural 
laws,  and  shall  be  helpful  to  the  general  interests  and 
welfare  of  society — that  is  to  say,  of  his  fellow-men. 
He  knows  beforehand  that  he  cannot  hope  entirely 
to  control  events ;  and  he  guards,  so  far  as  possible, 
against  the  inevitable  uncertainties  by  founding  him- 


THE   IMPORTANCE   OF   FAITH.  19 

self  upon  the  general  prosperity,  and  by  going  along 
with  and  not  contrary  to  those  natural  laws  which  he 
understands.  It  is  in  this  way  that  great  and  perma- 
nent successes  are  made.  Thus  a  young  man  plan- 
ning a  career  for  himself  would,  if  he  were  far-sighted 
and  wise  enough  to  deserve  success,  take  care  in  the 
beginning  that  his  plans  were  not  to  violate  natural 
laws,  nor  to  be  hurtful,  but  beneficial,  to  his  fellow- 
men  ;  and,  having  taken  this  precaution,  he  would  go 
on,  largely  on  faith,  against  great  and  frequent  dis- 
couragements, often  in  poverty,  friendless,  misunder- 
stood, perhaps  in  temporary  defeat  and  disgrace ;  but 
he  would  follow  in  one  fixed  direction,  and  govern 
his  life  and  his  course  by  the  lines  he  had  laid  out  in 
the  beginning. 

To  do  otherwise,  to  set  out  without  definite  pur- 
pose, to  change  from  one  kind  of  effort  to  another 
at  slight  temptations  of  fortune,  would  be,  as  you 
easily  see,  to  fritter  away  his  life;  to  waste  his 
strength  without  result.  To  be  unstable,  to  "do 
everything  by  turns  and  nothing  well,"  to  live  one's 
life  without  some  fixed  theory  of  action,  to  drift, 
even  in  the  affairs  of  this  brief  life,  is  acknowledged 
by  everybody  to  be  unwise,  unfit,  and  even  deserv- 
ing contempt.  It  is  to  be  the  sport  of  circumstances 
and  to  invite  failure. 

Now,  what  is  thus  plainly  true  in  the  affairs  of 


20  GOD  AND  THE  FUTURE  LIFE. 

this  life  must  be,  as  I  would  like  you  to  see,  true  in 
a  far  greater  and  more  important  sense,  if  you  are 
to  look  for  another  and  more  permanent  existence 
after  death.  If  this  life  in  the  body  is  not  all,  but  if 
it  is  only  the  prelude  to  a  far  broader,  more  enduring, 
and  higher  existence  for  you,  necessarily  you  ought 
to  take  that  other  and  larger  part  of  your  life  into 
account  in  all  your  plans  and  thoughts.  To  do  oth- 
erwise would  be  to  neglect  the  precautions  which 
men  take,  as  I  have  said,  for  objects  of  infinitely 
less  importance.  It  would  be  as  though  one  should 
engage  an  architect  to  build  a  cellar,  but  run  up  a 
costly  house  over  it  without  regard  to  the  skill  or 
experience  even  of  a  builder  or  practical  mechanic. 

To  consent  to  live  without  definite  notions  of  its 
objects  and  tendencies,  must  needs  make  all  human 
effort  random  and  unsatisfactory,  and  human  life  an 
aimless  or  a  selfish  and  merely  animal  existence. 
The  man  who  does  this  can  only  drift.  He  is  the 
creature  of  his  impulses  and  of  his  fears,  as  are  the 
animals.  We  have  been  left  intellectually  free  to 
believe  as  seems  to  us  most  reasonable  and  conclu- 
sive on  this  great  question.  You  may  satisfy  your 
minds,  as  some  have  done,  that  there  is  no  God,  and 
no  future  life  for  you ;  and  when  you  come  to  this 
conviction  or  faith  you  will  live  accordingly.  Or 
you  may  convince  yourself  that  there  is  a  God,  and 


THE   IMPORTANCE   OF   FAITH.  2  L 

that  your  life — yourself — will  continue  after  your 
body  perishes ;  and  as,  in  the  other  case,  if  this  be- 
lief takes  root  in  your  mind,  if  it  is  a  conviction,  you 
will  be  impelled  to  plan  your  present  life  in  accord- 
ance with  it.  But  it  is  plainly  your  highest  duty  to 
yourself,  it  is  the  one  thing  necessary  to  your  own 
real  manhood  or  womanhood,  and  to  your  satisfactory 
living,  that  you  shall  come  to  some  conclusion.  You 
ought  not  to  put  it  aside ;  for  it  is  mainly  the  ability 
to  consider  this  question  which  makes  us  higher  than, 
and  different  from,  the  animals ;  and  it  is  the  convic- 
tion to  which  you  come,  the  Faith  which  comes  to 
you  and  becomes  part  of  you,  which  alone  can  en- 
able you  to  plan  your  life  satisfactorily,  and  to  live 
it  with  purpose  and  effectively. 

That  is  to  say,  you  cannot  live,  in  any  sense  high- 
er than  the  merest  animal  existence,  without  faith. 
"As  a  man  thinketh  in  his  heart,  so  is  he;"  and  if 
he  will  not  think  at  all  of  this  problem  of  what  life 
means,  or  if  he  is  content  to  think  vaguely  and  care- 
lessly, necessarily  he  drifts,  as  a  ship  whose  master 
lays  no  course  for  her ;  he  tends  to  become  no  better, 
but  rather  worse,  than  the  beasts  which  perish ;  he 
abandons  that  which,  if  there  is  a  future  life,  is  the 
only  important  or  enduring  part  of  him,  and  which, 
even  in  this  life,  is  needed  to  make  him  a  MAN,  and 
not  merely  (as  we  see  in  so  many  instances)  an  abler 


22  GOD  AND  THE  FUTURE  LIFE. 

and  more  dangerous  kind  of  animal.  Nothing  is  so 
important  to  the  direction  of  your  lives  and  your 
efforts,  to  the  maintenance  of  your  self-possession 
and  serenity  of  soul,  as  that  you  shall  be  possessed 
by  a  definite,  firmly  grasped  belief  as  to  the  real  ob- 
jects of  your  life,  and  its  duration  and  character. 

To  live  without  God  in  the  world  is  sufficiently 
dreary ;  but  the  man  who  sincerely  and  soberly  de- 
nies God  and  a  future  life,  though  I  think  him  a 
very  unenviable  being,  has  yet  a  faith,  and  may,  in 
my  belief,  be  happier  and  more  useful  to  his  fellow- 
men  than  that  great  number  who  refuse  to  think  at 
all  of  this  subject,  or  even  than  those  whose  faith  is 
perfunctory,  vague,  a  source  of  confusion,  irresolu- 
tion, and  terror,  and  not  of  the  strength  and  consist- 
ency which  come  of  a  real  belief. 


THE  REASONABLENESS  OF  RELIGIOUS  FAITH.    23 


II. 

THE  REASONABLENESS  OF  RELIGIOUS  FAITH. 

I  HAVE  tried,  in  what  goes  before,  to  impress  on 
your  minds  that  a  belief  of  some  kind  concerning 
the  meaning  and  purpose  of  human  life  is  necessary 
to  raise  us  above  the  beasts,  with  whom,  so  far  as 
regards  our  bodies,  we  have  so  much  in  common. 
Life  without  some  such  belief — life  without  Faith, 
in  this  sense — is  unendurable  to  thoughtful  men  and 
women.  You  will  notice  that  coincidently  with  the 
general  and  lamentable  decadence  of  faith  in  the 
Christian  theory  of  life,  which  marks  our  century, 
has  come  a  new  and  vigorous  discussion  of  the  ques- 
tion, What  is  the  true  meaning  of  life  ?  Some  of  the 
very  men  who  most  positively  and  earnestly  reject 
the  Christian  faith  are  the  most  indefatigable  in 
their  efforts  to  establish  some  other  theory  of  life. 
They  cannot  rest  with  mere  negation ;  and  you  may 
see  in  the  tone  and  drift  of  their  discussions  how 
intolerable  to  these  thoughtful  doubters  is  mere 
doubting ;  how  necessary  to  their  peace  of  mind  is 
a  settled  belief  of  some  kind.  The  men  who  in 


24  GOD   AND  THE   FUTURE   LIFE. 

these  days  deny  the  existence  of  God  and  the  im- 
mortality of  the  soul,  are  farthest  from  resting  con- 
tent with  this  mere  denial ;  they  are  the  most  active, 
the  most  prominent  and  zealous  in  their  effort  to 
discover  some  other  and  tenable  faith — some  other 
theory  on  which  to  explain  satisfactorily  to  them- 
selves, and  harmoniously  with  the  general  laws  of 
nature  and  the  creation,  the  meaning  and  purpose  of 
human  life.  Thus,  strangely  enough,  this  great  ques- 
tion has  never  been  so  earnestly  and  widely  con- 
sidered as  now,  in  this  which  is  often  called  the  Age 
of  the  Decadence  of  Faith. 

They,  too,  who  reject  Christianity  thus  acknowl- 
edge that  a  faith  of  some  kind  is  necessary  to  their 
comfort  and  satisfaction. 

Therefore,  that  you  ought  to  think  clearly  on  this 
subject,  and  that  you  ought  to  settle  to  some  form 
of  faith,  as  indispensable  to  your  satisfactory  living, 
you  may  hold  certain. 

What,  then,  ought  you  to  believe  on  this  question  ? 

I  believe  profoundly  that  there  is  a  God,  and  a 
Future  Life.  The  more  I  see  of  human  life;  the 
more  I  learn  of  what  are  called  natural  laws ;  the 
more  closely  I  study  the  history  of  our  race,  of  the 
earth,  and  of  the  universe,  the  more  decidedly  this 
seems  to  me  to  be  the  most  reasonable,  and  the  only 
reasonable  belief. 


THE   REASONABLENESS   OF   RELIGIOUS   FAITH.    25 

Naturally,  I  would  like  you  to  be  "  moved  by  the 
same  faith  "  with  myself.  While  you  remained  chil- 
dren it  was  sufficient  for  you  to  know  that  the 
matters  I  speak  of  were  declared  by  Jesus,  and  are 
found  in  the  Bible.  You  had  no  occasion  to  look 
farther;  and  to  millions  who,  happily  perhaps  for 
themselves,  do  not  come  into  contact  with,  or  under 
the  influence  of  the  modern  spirit  of  doubt,  this  re- 
mains, in  like  manner,  conclusive.  The  w^ords  and 
the  life  of  Jesus  suffice  for  them.  But  the  tendency, 
and  often  the  effect,  of  modern  discussion  is  to  weak- 
en and  shake  this  simpler  faith.  Of  this  we  can- 
not complain ;  but  it  forces  us  to  look  more  carefully 
into  the  subject,  and,  if  possible,  to  seek  a  reason  for 
the  faith  that  is  within  us — outside  of  the  Bible — 
because  the  men  and  the  books  we  reason  with,  and 
which  appeal  to  our  minds  often  with  great  force 
and  acuteness,  will  not  accept  the  Bible  as  final. 

A  clergyman  in  the  pulpit  may  declare  that  it  is 
true  that  there  is  a  God,  and  that  he  has  destined  us 
to  a  future  life,  because  the  Bible  so  declares.  But 
the  unbeliever  replies,  "  It  may  be  true,  but  I  will 
not  take  it  on  the  evidence  you  present.  If  a  col- 
lege professor  tells  me  that  a  proposition  in  mathe- 
matics is  true  because  Euclid  so  delivered  it,  I  reply 
to  him,  it  may  be  true,  but  it  is  not  true  for  the  rea- 
son you  give,  but  outside  of  that  altogether.  Dem- 


26  GOD  AND  THE  FUTURE   LIFE. 

onstrate  its  truth,  to  me,  then  I  will  believe.  Euclid 
is  but  a  reporter.  I  will  not  accept  him  for  more 
than  that." 

And  this  young  doubter  proposes  to  treat  the 
Bible  as  of  no  more  final  authority  than  a  book  of 
mathematics.  He  admits  that,  in  citing  the  Bible, 
the  clergyman  has  offered  what  lawyers  call  pre- 
sumptive evidence,  but  asserts  that  he  has  not  nec- 
essarily proved  his  case. 

Now,  I  do  not  know  that  those  of  us  who  believe 
have  a  right  to  blame  this  doubter.  We  have  a 
right,  if  we  choose,  or  if  by  our  intellectual  training 
we  are  impelled  to  it,  to  use  our  reasoning  powers 
on  this  as  on  all  other  subjects.  "We  have  a  right  to 
inquire ;  and  as  this  question  is  the  most  important 
of  all  to  ourselves,  we  are  bound  to  inquire.  And 
while  we  cannot  expect  to  arrive  at  absolute  certain- 
ty on  this,  as  on  some  other  less  important  questions, 
I  believe  that  intelligent  inquiry  will  only  result  in 
strengthening  faith ;  and  that  the  more  closely  you 
examine  the  theory  that  there  is  a  God,  and  that 
there  is  for  us  a  future  life,  the  more  you  will  be 
convinced  that  all  the  probabilities  He  on  that  side ; 
and  that  those  who  deny  these  positions  require,  in 
fact,  from  you  a  greater  stretch  of  faith,  and  impose 
upon  your  minds  a  far  greater  strain,  than  those  who 
ask  you  to  believe. 


THE  REASONABLENESS  OF  RELIGIOUS  FAITH.    27 

It  would  be  strange  and  puzzling  to  us  who  ac- 
cept the  Bible  as  true  if  this  were  not  so ;  for  to 
admit  that  the  Scripture  teachings  of  God  and  a 
future  life  are  repugnant  to  the  course  of  nature, 
and  to  what  we  can  know  of  human  life  and  charac- 
ter, would  be  to  say  that  God  contradicts  himself. 
It  is  more  reasonable  to  expect  that  the  belief  which 
we  draw  from  the  Bible  must  be  confirmed  by  what 
we  see  in  the  material  universe,  and  that  the  word 
and  the  works  of  God  must  be  consistent  with  each 
other. 

While  He  has  declared  that  no  man  shall  see  him 
at  any  time  with  his  eyes  in  this  life,  and  while  He 
has  hidden  the  future  beyond  the  grave  absolutely 
from  apprehension  by  our  bodily  senses,  we  may,  I 
believe,  arrive  at  such  an  assurance  on  these  subjects, 
from  a  view  of  the  present  life  and  of  all  the  uni- 
verse that  surrounds  us,  as,  though  it  cannot  resolve 
all  mysteries  (and  thus  make  faith  of  no  importance), 
will  yet  place  that  faith  on  a  reasonable  basis,  and 
confirm  it  by  all  that  human  thought  can  master  of 
the  works  and  laws  of  the  Creator. 

Please  to  observe  that  the  greatest  discoveries  in 
science,  of  these  later  days,  rest  on  no  stronger  foun- 
dation than  this.  The  theory  of  Evolution  is  not 
proved — no  man  has  seen  the  changes  which  it  sup- 
poses ;  all  that  its  supporters  assert  is,  that  in  some 


28  GOD   AND  THE   FUTURE   LIFE. 

"arge  and  important  aspects,  but  not  in  all,  it  ex- 
plains the  course  of  organic  life,  and  the  changes 
this  has  undergone,  more  perfectly  than  other  the- 
ories which  have  been  advanced.  The  molecular 
theory  in  physics  is  not  proved  in  the  sense  that  any 
one  has  seen,  or  in  any  other  way  physically  appre- 
hended, a  molecule,  or  an  atom  of  matter.  Your 
teacher  in  physics  will  tell  you  only  that  it  ex- 
plains certain  phenomena  of  matter  better,  and  all 
these  phenomena  more  completely,  than  any  other 
theory.  Now,  what  we,  who  believe  in  God  and  in  a 
future  life,  may  reasonably  expect  to  find  in  a  study 
of  human  life  and  of  nature  is,  that  our  theory  shall 
have  like  confirmation  with  these  others. 

If  a  young  man  at  school  or  college  should  say  to 
his  teacher,  "  I  refuse  to  look  farther  into  the  atomic 
theory  which  you  are  teaching  unless  you  will  first 
show  me  an  atom,"  he  would  rightly  be  thought  a 
bumptious  young  fellow,  only  moderately  endowed 
with  common-sense.  But  this  would  be  just  as  rea- 
sonable as  if  one  should  say,  "  I  decline  to  believe  in 
God  unless  you  show  me  God ;  or  in  the  future  life 
unless  you  first  produce  me  a  being  from  that  future 
state." 

On  the  other  hand,  the  inquirer  into  physical  phe- 
nomena, when  he  has  satisfied  himself  of  a  truth, 
makes  that,  so  far  as  it  applies,  a  basis  of  his  further 


THE   REASONABLENESS   OF   RELIGIOUS   FAITH.    29 

investigations.  The  mathematician,  satisfied  that 
twice  two  makes  four — why,  he  knows  not — does 
not  thereupon  neglect  this  important  element  in  his 
calculations ;  does  not  treat  it  as  of  little  or  no  con- 
sequence. He  makes  it,  on  the  contrary,  the  guide, 
the  controlling  factor  in  all  his  calculations.  It  in- 
forms and  overrules  his  mathematical  life.  If,  by 
any  strange  chance,  doubt  should  be  thrown  on  its 
truth,  he  would  not  rest  until  he  had  established  it, 
or  had  found  some  equivalent  truth  to  replace  it. 

In  like  manner  I  have  endeavored,  in  previous 
chapters,  to  show  you  how  and  why  whatever  beliefs 
you  may  hold  concerning  God  and  the  future  life 
ought  to  become  the  rule  of  your  conduct ;  that  a 
right  belief  is  of  vital  importance  if  you  desire  to 
make  anything  satisfactory  out  of  your  life ;  if  it  is 
to  be  anything  more  than  a  medley  of  confused  and 
random  acts. 

God  has  chosen,  for  various  reasons,  some  of  which 
are  sufficiently  obvious,  to  conceal  from  us  not  mere- 
ly that  part  of  our  lives  which  lies  beyond  the  grave, 
but  even  all  knowledge  of  the  immediate  future  in 
this  life.  But  he  has  given  us  reasoning  faculties, 
has  enabled  us  to  observe  facts  and  to  draw  conclu- 
sions— in  short,  to  think.  I  believe  that,  while  he 
has  filled  our  lives  with  mysteries  which  we  vainly 
strive  to  comprehend,  he  has  not  exacted  of  us  either 


30  GOD  AND   THE   FUTU11E   LIFE. 

unreasonable  or  unreasoning  belief ;  and  that  in  this 
supremely  important  matter  of  the  future  life  we 
may  come  to  as  valid  conclusions  by  inquiry  and 
reasoning  as  men  of  science  do  in  many  of  their  in- 
vestigations from  the  known  to  the  unknown,  or  as 
they  also  do  where  their  field  of  facts  is  large  enough 
— in  reasoning  from  the  known  to  the  admittedly 
unknowable. 

To  proceed  systematically  to  the  inquiry  which  I 
urge,  it  seems  advisable  to  consider  first  what  you 
really  are,  what  kind  of  being,  and  what  kind  of 
circumstances  surround  you. 


WHAT   ARE  YOU?  31 


III. 

WHAT  ARE  YOU? 

You  are  a  rational,  that  is  to  say,  a  thinking  and 
reasoning  being,  brought  into  existence  without  your 
previous  knowledge  or  consent ;  placed  here  in  cir- 
cumstances more  or  less  disagreeable;  subject  to 
pain  and  to  various  kinds  of  suffering,  the  least  of 
which,  please  observe,  are  those  which  affect  your 
body;  and  finally  to  the  decay  and  dissolution  of 
this  body. 

You  are  unable  to  control  your  physical  lif e,  either 
in  its  circumstances  or  its  duration,  except  to  an  ex- 
tremely moderate  degree.  You  are  moved  by  im- 
pulses, desires,  and  passions,  almost  all  of  a  kind  in- 
jurious not  only  to  your  nobler  or  spiritual  part,  but 
even  to  your  body,  and  which  require  your  constant 
attention  to  control,  or  even  to  guide  them.  Igno- 
rant to  a  very  great  extent  of  the  laws  of  your  ph^s- 
ical  being,  your  powers  are  limited  on  every  side  by 
boundaries  which  no  effort  of  yours,  or  of  all  man*, 
kind,  can  do  more  than  widen  a  very  little ;  for  by 
no  means  in  your  reach  can  you  foreknow  even  what 


32  GOD   AND  THE  FUTURE   LIFE. 

may  happen  in  the  next  moment  to  yourself,  or  to 
those  dearer  to  yon  than  your  own  life.  The  wisest 
of  mankind  is  without  sufficient  knowledge  to  guard 
his  life  securely  against  danger  or  distress.  Your 
whole  existence  here  is  one  continuous  uncertainty ; 
and  so  true  is  this  that,  in  spite  of  the  wisdom  of  the 
most  prudent  and  care-taking,  a  proverb  relates  that 
"  it  is  the  unexpected  which  always  happens." 

From  the  moment  of  your  birth  but  one  event  is 
certain  for  you,  and  that  is  your  death;  and  you 
cannot  even  foreknow  the  time  when  this  will  come. 
As  an  intelligent  being,  you  have  a  boundless  ca- 
pacity and  desire  for  knowledge ;  and  you  see  in 
the  universe,  and  even  on  this  planet,  an  illimitable 
field  for  inquiry  and  acquisition.  Yet  we  scarcely 
begin  to  know  what  knowledge  is  in  any  branch  of 
life  or  nature  before  bodily  infirmities  and  old  age 
impair  our  physical  energies  and  weaken  the  organs 
on  whose  help  we  depend  for  the  exercise  of  our 
intellectual  powers :  as  the  explorer  of  a  strange  con- 
tinent might  be  crippled  on  the  threshold  of  his 
discoveries  by  the  breaking  down  of  his  w^agons,  the 
death  of  his  horses,  or  the  desertion  of  his  guides. 

You  can  hope,  by  the  utmost  efforts  of  a  long 
life,  to  know  by  sight  only  a  small  part  of  the  planet 
on  which  we  live ;  yet  you  know  that  our  earth  is 
but  one  of  myriads  of  worlds,  and  that  our  sun  and 


WHAT  ARE  YOU?  33 

its  planets  form  only  one  of  the  smaller  of  the  sys- 
tems which  crowd  the  universe.  You  are  surround- 
ed by  mysteries  which  the  wisest  of  our  race  call 
"  laws,"  and  can  no  further  explain ;  and  if  you  could 
master  all  science  and  all  knowledge,  you  would  only 
know  that  man  has  penetrated  with  uncertain  hands 
but  skin-deep  into  the  infinite. 

A  great  part  of  our  life  here  is  needed  to  teach 
us  even  the  most  superficial  knowledge  of  the  laws 
of  our  physical  being;  and  yet  all  the  knowledge 
we  may  gain  and  apply  does  not  suffice  to  protect 
us  against  the  gravest  calamities  or  the  most  un- 
looked-for and  painful  mishaps.  You  have  a  desire 
for  virtuous  conduct,  yet  find  yourself  constantly  the 
prey  of  tendencies  to  vice  and  wrong-doing.  Your 
whole  conscious  life  here,  if  it  is  rightly  conducted, 
is  necessarily  an  unremitting  strife  with  your  evil  pro- 
pensities, which,  on  the  least  indulgence,  are  prone 
to  become  fixed  as  habits  ;  and  with  the  utmost  care 
we  know  not  at  what  moment  evil  will  overcome 
our  good  intentions. 

Plan  your  life  as  carefully,  as  prudently  as  you 
may,  bend  all  your  energies  to  the  achievement  of 
your  purposes,  and  yet  you  may  discover  in  the 
end  that  your  plans  were  blunders,  and  that  your 
labors  have  led  only  to  the  disappointment  of  your 
hopes. 

3 


34  GOD  AND  THE   FUTURE   LIFE. 

And  finally,  at  the  end  of  the  most  fortunate  life, 
comes  death. 

If,  then,  we  are  to  conclude  that  there  is  no  pos- 
sibility of  life  for  us  beyond  the  body,  that  physical 
death  means  the  extinction  not  merely  of  our  bodies 
but  of  ourselves^  then  certainly  mankind  are  the 
sport  of  a  very  cruel  and  ghastly  injustice ;  and  we 
may  reasonably  ask  by  what  strange  and  not  to  be 
looked  for  stroke  of  unreason,  in  a  universe  which 
we  perceive  on  every  hand  to  be  the  harmonious 
creature  of  laws,  men  have  been  endowed  with  fac- 
ulties doomed  to  be  wasted,  with  intelligent  desires 
foreordained  only  to  disappointment  ?  How  comes 
this  huge  and  inexplicable  incongruity  in  a  system 
which,  in  every  part  of  it,  save  this  highest,  is  evi- 
dently based  on  purpose,  and  carried  on  upon  an 
intelligent  plan? 


YOU  ARE  AN  INDIVIDUAL.  35 


IV. 

YOU  ARE  AN  INDIVIDUAL. 

SUCH,  however,  is  your  life,  and  you  are  to  live  it 
upon  such  a  plan  as  you  may  choose  to  form. 

You  are  at  liberty  to  plan  for  yourself ;  and  not 
only  this,  you  must  do  so.  You  are  an  individual, 
a  distinct  personality.  For  a  time,  during  your  im- 
mature life  you  lived  under  the  guidance  of  father 
and  mother;  but  the  most  tender  and  the  wisest 
parents  even  can,  as  a  very  wide  experience  teaches, 
far  more  easily  spoil  than  make  the  lives  of  their 
children.  It  is  your  own  effort,  your  own  will  alone 
which  can  make  you  a  man  or  a  woman  in  any  true 
sense. 

You  can,  at  any  time,  share  this  individuality — 
yourself — with  others  only  to  an  extremely  limited 
extent.  Live  as  intimately  as  you  may  with  an- 
other, you  never  become  wholly  one  with  him. 

Your  mother  mourns  in  her  heart  that,  though 
you  are  her  own,  she  knows  you  not. 

At  bottom  each  one  of  us  is  solitary — alone  with     \ 
God. 


36  GOD  AND  THE   FUTURE   LIFE. 

Each  one  of  us  must  choose  for  himself  what  he 
will  make  of  this  life,  which  has  come  to  him  with- 
out his  asking,  and  in  which  he  finds  himself  not 
only  free  but  forced  to  choose. 

Now,  in  making  up  your  mind  what  to  do  with 
your  life,  your  first  reasonable  inquiry  will  be  this 
one  :  How  long  is  it  to  last  ?  and  in  what  conditions 
is  it  to  be  passed?  If  your  conscious  and  personal 
•existence  is  to  have  only  a  little  longer  duration 
than  the  life  of  a  cow,  and  a  little  shorter  than 
that  of  a  crow,  or  an  elephant,  that  fact,  if  it  is  a 
fact,  must  very  greatly  control  your  plans.  If,  on 
the  other  hand,  you  find  reason  to  believe  that  this 
life  in  the  body  is  to  be  but  a  very  small  and  insig- 
nificant fraction  of  your  whole  existence,  and  that 
your  personality  will  continue  unimpaired  beyond 
the  grave,  and  in  a  condition  where  you  will  act 
without  reference  to  your  present  physical  part  (your 
body),  that  fact,  if  it  is  a  fact,  can  scarcely  fail,  if  it 
impresses  itself  on  your  mind,  to  make  all  your  plans 
for  this  life  very  greatly  and  essentially  different. 

You  will  easily  see  that  this  must  be  so,  if  you 
will  reflect  that  an  event  which  would  be  of  the 
greatest  moment  to  you  if  this  life  were  all  you  had 
to  live,  might  assume  an  entirely  different  aspect  and 
significance  if  this  is  but  a  small  part  of  your  exist- 
ence, and  if,  in  fact,  the  few  years  you  are  to  pass 


YOU   ARE  AN   INDIVIDUAL.  37 

here  in  the  company  of  your  body  are,  compared 
with  the  total  duration  of  your  life,  far  less  than  the 
few  brief  years  you  pass  at  school  would  appear,  if 
compared  with  the  full  span  of  human  life  of  three- 
score years  and  ten. 

A  cow,  being  hungry  and  unable  to  find  food  oth- 
erwise, leaps  a  fence  and  eats  her  fill  in  a  strange 
field.  Nor  do  we  blame  her.  Only  a  beating — the 
dread  of  a  severer  pain  than  hunger — will  keep  her 
within  her  master's  bounds.  But  a  man,  a  reasoning 
being,  suffers  hunger  and  refuses  to  steal — not  from 
fear  of  the  constable  and  the  jail,  but  because  he 
will  not  taint  his  soul,  his  immortal  part,  with  wrong 
to  gratify  his  body. 

If  it  were  an  immemorial  custom  of  our  colleges 
to  lead  the  members  of  the  graduating  class  to  the 
public  square  or  campus  as  soon  as  they  had  received 
their  diplomas,  and  there  and  then  cut  off  their  heads, 
it  is  not  absolutely  impossible  that  young  men  would 
still  be  sent  to  college — for  the  power  of  fashion  is 
very  great.  But,  being  placed  there,  they  certainly 
would  not  give  themselves  to  the  fulfilment  of  disa- 
greeable duties,  nor  deny  themselves  any  pleasures 
within  their  reach.  If  any  studied,  it  would  be  be- 
cause the  acquisition  of  knowledge  was,  on  the 
whole,  more  agreeable  to  them  than  some  other 
form  of  dissipation ;  and,  with  extinction  only  four 


38  GOD  AND  THE   FUTURE   LIFE. 

years  ahead,  each  would  follow  his  own  impulses.  To 
talk  of  duty  or  of  self-denial  to  men  so  placed  would 
seem  to  them  ridiculous,  and  would,  in  fact,  be  so. 

But  a  boy  who  is  reasonably  persuaded  that  the 
object  of  attending  school,  or  learning  a  trade,  is  to 
fit  him  for  the  duties  and  enjoyments  of  manhood, 
reconciles  himself  to  the  disagreeables,  the  self-denial 
and  submission  which  his  student  or  apprentice  life 
imposes,  because  he  believes  that  there  is  a  higher 
life  beyond  the  school  or  the  apprentice's  term,  a  life 
of  greater  activity,  greater  independence,  and  wider 
enjoyments,  for  which  he  is  laboriously  and  perhaps 
even  painfully  fitting  himself,  and  into  which  he 
justly  believes  he  could  not  enter  without  such  pre- 
liminary training. 

You  will  see,  I  think,  out  of  all  this  that  what 
your  plans  in  life  shall  be,  what  you  will  make  the 
object  of  your  hopes  and  aims,  and  by  what  means 
you  will  prosecute  these  objects — what  manner  of 
man  or  woman  you  are  to  be,  in  short — must  depend 
absolutely  upon  what  you  conceive  life  to  be,  what 
you  believe  to  be  the  bearings  of  this  life ;  what  is 
to  be  the  duration  of  your  wThole  existence. 

But,  if  you  reflect  a  little,  you  will  perceive  some- 
thing further,  namely,  that  patience,  self-sacrifice, 
cheerful  submission  to  disappointments  and  discom- 
forts, courage,  endurance,  all  that  we  call  manly  and 


YOU   ARE   AN   INDIVIDUAL.  39 

Christian  virtues — those  qualities  in  men  for  the  cul- 
tivation of  which  we  respect  them,  and  on  which  hu- 
man society  rests — do  arise  out  of  a  belief  in  a  future 
life.  They  become  reasonable  only  where  the  man 
believes  in  a  life  hereafter ;  nor  is  there  a  doubt  that 
if  anywhere  in  a  society  or  nation  this  belief  should 
die  out  and  become  extinct,  that  society  or  nation 
would  perish,  as  an  organized  body ;  because  its  mem- 
bers would  rapidly  become  self-seeking,  would  scorn 
self-denial,  would  refuse  submission  to  the  general 
good.  "  Every  man  for  himself  "  would  logically  be- 
come the  supreme  rule;  and  it  would  require  the 
superior  force  of  a  dictator  or  military  tyrant  to 
maintain  even  the  commonest  arts  of  civilization  in 
such  a  society.  So  true  is  this,  that  wherever  in  any 
country  the  thought  of  and  belief  in  a  future  life 
has  died  out  among  even  a  considerable  part  of  the 
population,  there,  in  the  same  measure,  you  see  men 
turn  to  selfish  enjoyments,  to  brutal  or  merely  ani- 
mal lives;  they  avoid  duty  and  self-sacrifice,  and 
seek  satisfaction  in  a  scramble  for  wealth,  fashion, 
ambition,  or  ease. 

You  may  object  that  there  are  men  who,  reject- 
ing God  and  denying  a  future  life  for  themselves 
or  mankind,  are  still  conspicuously  laborious  for  the 
good  of  their  fellows — benevolent,  unselfish,  and  obe- 
dient to  a  high  sense  of  duty.  This  is  very  true ; 


40  GOD  AND  THE  FUTURE  LIFE. 

and  so,  to  recur  to  my  former  illustration  of  the  con- 
duct of  college  students,  if  they  knew  that  on  their 
graduation  they  were  to  be  killed,  not  all  would  turn 
to  low  or  degrading  pleasures,  though  it  is  probable 
that  the  greater  part  would  do  so.  But  each  would 
pursue  that  which  most  gratified  his  own  mind ;  and 
while  some  would  study  and  read,  this  would  be 
because  to  these  few  the  acquisition  of  knowledge 
seemed,  on  the  whole,  pleasanter  than  gluttony, 
drunkenness,  or  some  other  form  of  vicious  indul- 
gence. 

Nor  are  you  to  forget  that  the  long  fixed  code  of 
morals  of  Christendom  retains  inevitably  a  powerful 
influence  over  even  those  who  nowadays  deny  the 
Christian  doctrine,  and  especially  on  those  who,  re- 
jecting this  theory  of  life,  are  yet  impelled  to  seek 
another.  Thoughtful  sceptics  or  deniers  are  the 
most  certain  to  strive  after  the  highest  ideal  of  liv- 
ing which  they  can  conceive,  and  to  be  subjected  in 
their  thoughts  and  aspirations  in  this  life  most  com- 
pletely by  all  that  is  noble  and  humane  in  the  Chris- 
tian code.  The  mass  of  mankind  are  thus  affected 
also,  but  to  a  much  more  limited  degree,  as  we  plain- 
ly perceive  on  every  hand ;  and  you  need  only  to 
read  the  history  of  the  Roman  decadence  to  see  what 
becomes  of  a  nation  in  which  the  belief  in  God  and 
a  future  life  has  perished.  In  that  sad  and  terrible 


YOU    ARE  AN   INDIVIDUAL.  41 

story  you  can  see  liow  futile  is  the  effort  of  society 
to  get  on  without  God;  how  selfishness  takes  the 
place  of  duty  where  men  cease  to  believe  in  a  future 
life  ;  how  all  the  barriers  of  restraint  are  broken 
down,  and  society  presently  becomes  corrupted,  de- 
praved, vicious,  and  at  last  falls  into  helpless  an- 
archy. 

The  belief  in  God  and  a  future  life  appears  thus 
to  be  in  harmony  with  the  best  interests,  and  even 
necessary  to  the  orderly  existence  of  human  society. 
And  this  is  because  it  operates  as  a  restraint  upon 
the  selfish  ambitions  of  the  strong,  as  the  protection 
of  the  weak,  and  the  consoler  of  the  unfortunate ; 
and  because  it  opens  up  a  life  beyond  the  grave,  as 
the  solace  and  satisfaction  of  those  who  find  here 
their  efforts  thwarted  and  their  hopes  failures. 


4:2  GOD  AND  THE  FUTURE   LIFE. 


V. 

THE  NECESSITY  OF  A  LIVING  FAITH. 

IF  I  insist,  even  to  repetition,  upon  the  importance 
of  Faith,  this  is  because  I  should  like  you  to  grasp 
solidly  this  fact,  that  it  is  the  greatest  calamity  which 
can  befall  a  human  being  to  live  his  life  without  a 
firm  and  permeating  belief  in  God  and  the  future 
life.  "Eat,  drink,  and  be  merry,  for  to-morrow  we 
die,"  is  necessarily,  though  no  doubt  often  uncon- 
sciously, the  creed  of  one  who  has  ceased  to  believe 
in  a  future  and  spiritual  life  for  himself ;  or,  worse 
yet,  of  one  who,  as  so  many  in  our  days,  holds  this 
faith  vaguely  and  formally,  as  a  thing  which  need 
have  no  effect  upon  his  actions,  or  on  his  character 
which  is  the  result  of  his  actions ;  as  a  faith  which 
comes  to  him  only  as  a  spectre  of  terror  in  his  lone- 
ly moments,  or  when  he  is  ill,  or  in  danger  or  great 
discomfort. 

It  is  written,  "  The  devils  believe  also — and  trem- 
ble ;"  and  the  man  to  whom  the  faith  we  are  con- 
sidering takes  on  this  shape — to  whom  the  future 
after  death  is  a  matter  of  no  concern  except  as  it 


THE  NECESSITY  OF  A  LIVING  FAITH.  43 

leaves  him  a  prey  to  nameless  terrors  —  this  man 
necessarily  plays  with  life  as  a  gambler,  sadly  or 
savagely  as  his  temper  may  lead  him,  but  without 
hope  of  any  good  which  he  might  attain  by  the 
proper  training  of  his  spirit,  outside  the  narrow  and 
uncertain  span  of  his  few  earthly  days.  The  strong- 
er willed  such  a  man  is,  and  the  better  trained  his 
intellect,  the  more  apt  he  is  to  resent  his  circum- 
stances, his  companionships,  his  disabilities  and  limi- 
tations. 

It  is  because  the  faith  of  Christendom  has  been 
so  greatly  shaken  in  modern  days,  because  great 
masses  of  men  have  ceased  to  believe,  in  any  real 
sense,  in  God  and  the  future  life,  that  we  see  such 
numbers  devoted  to  the  mere  pursuit  of  comfort, 
wealth,  and  ambition  —  to  the  scramble  after  the 
lower  pleasures  and  enjoyments,  and  the  gratification 
of  those  desires  and  passions  wThich  pertain  to  the 
body,  and  therefore  to  this  life  alone,  and  undue 
absorption  in  which  leads  to  a  merely  animal  exist- 
ence, and  kills  the  spirit.  We  see  more  and  more 
all  over  the  Christian  world  that  as  this  faith  in 
God  and  expectation  of  a  future  life  are  weakened 
or  decrease,  so  discontent,  envy  of  the  worldly  great 
and  successful,  a  craving  for  physical  comforts  and 
enjoyments,  and  a  blind  worship  of  success  increase ; 
and  thus  we  find  a  numerous  multitude  among  the 


44  GOD   AND  THE  "FUTURE   LIFE. 

so-called  Christian  nations,  thoughtless  and  heedless, 
greedy,  covetous,  and  self-seeking,  by  reason  of  un- 
belief, which  makes  life  to  them  dark  and  unreason- 
able, or  hopeless  and  frivolous. 

This  spread  of  unbelief  among  masses  of  men 
comes  largely  out  of  the  misconduct  of  those  who 
profess  to  hold  the  Christian  faith,  but  who  do  not 
carry  it  into  their  daily  lives.  If  you  go  to  church 
on  Sunday  and  profess,  in  public,  to  believe  in  the 
Christian  doctrine,  and  if  at  the  same  time  you  are 
seen  by  your  neighbor  to  be,  in  your  daily  life, 
greedy,  covetous,  cruel,  heartless,  unduly  ambitious, 
tyrannical,  self-seeking,  unscrupulous  in  the  pursuit 
of  your  advantages,  careless  of  your  neighbor's  wel- 
fare, unjust,  those  who  live  with  you,  or  near  you, 
whose  lives  your  conduct  affects,  are  very  likely  to 
reject  this  faith  you  profess  as  untrue  and  useless, 
because  they  see  that  it  does  not  control  your  own 
life.  Nor  is  any  human  being  so  humble,  or  his 
life  so  devoid  of  influence,  that  his  conduct  does 
not  affect  the  lives  and  opinions  of  others. 

That  you  shall  profoundly  and  really  believe  in 
God  and  a  future  life  is  important,  therefore,  not 
only  to  yourself,  but  to  all  who  live  within  reach  of 
your  life  and  are  affected  by  it.  The  man  possessed 
by  this  faith  must  presently  find  the  force  of  his  de- 
sires and  passions  moderated,  his  griefs  and  disap- 


THE  NECESSITY  OF  A  LIVING   FAITH.  45 

pointments  lessened,  Iris  hopes  enlarged.  He  has 
a  wider  view  of  the  field,  and  plans  his  life  on  a 
broader  scale.  He  will  reasonably,  and  not  out  of 
mere  terror,  prefer  self-denial  to  indulgence ;  what  he 
believes  will  affect  in  the  most  deliberate  and  vital 
manner  his  whole  plan  of  life,  his  views  of  conduct, 
his  value  of  the  results  of  effort,  his  measure  of  the 
importance  of  success  in  this  life,  of  all  its  enjoyments 
and  rewards,  as  well  as  of  its  cares,  disappointments, 
sorrows,  and  evils.  It  will  reveal  to  him  a  meaning 
and  purpose  in  the  accidents  of  this  life,  and  enable 
him  to  arrange  in  the  order  of  their  real  importance 
all  its  events  which  affect  him.  His  anxieties  will 
be  decreased,  his  sorrows  consoled,  his  ambition  tem- 
pered by  such  a  faith. 

It  is  because  the  Scripture  announcement  of  God 
and  a  future  life  harmonizes  so  completely  with  all 
we  know  of  this  life ;  because  it  reveals  its  other- 
wise hidden  purposes,  and  makes  that  reasonable 
and  full  of  meaning  which,  otherwise  regarded,  seems 
to  mankind  but  a  madman's  tale,  "  full  of  sound  and 
fury,  signifying  nothing,"  that  the  message  delivered 
by  Jesus  has  had  so  profound  and  striking  an  effect 
upon  the  thoughts  and  lives  of  men  in  all  stations, 
and  of  all  degrees  of  culture,  savage  as  well  as  civ- 
ilized, when  it  was  first  made  known  to  them.  It 
is  a  revelation  to  mankind  of  the  real  object  of  their 


46  GOD   AND  THE  FUTURE  LIFE. 

existence ;  the  justification,  in  their  hearts,  of  what 
was  felt,  without  this,  to  be  an  intolerable  burden. 
Few  men,  even  the  most  fortunate,  unless  they  are 
mere  animals,  arrive  at  middle  life  without  feeling 
profoundly  that,  if  this  life  is  all  that  belongs  to  us, 
\f  for  us  there  is  no  future  beyond  the  grave,  we 
are  only  the  helpless  creatures  of  a  monstrous  act 
of  injustice. 

The  theory  of  life  and  society,  and  of  duty,  de- 
clared by  Jesus,  clears  up  this  whole  mystery.  It 
shows  that  to  be  just,  reasonable,  and  in  harmony 
with  all  we  feel  in  us  and  see  about  us,  which  other- 
wise would  be  unjust,  and  tending  to  confusion  and 
anarchy.  Moreover,  the  solution  it  offers  has  the 
transcendent  merit  that  it  is  comprehensible  by  the 
most  ignorant  and  the  most  savage,  equally  with  the 
most  intelligent  and  highly  cultivated,  and  that  it  is 
accepted,  as  Jesus  saw  it  would  be,  more  readily  by 
the  weak,  the  suffering,  the  oppressed — the  "  babes 
and  sucklings  " — than  by  the  fortunate  and  power- 
ful, who  are  taken  up  with  the  affairs  and  enjoy- 
ments of  this  life,  and  whose  curse  it  is,  as  He  saw, 
that  in  the  days  of  their  prosperity  and  ease  they 
do  not  feel  the  need  of  God. 

Our  faith  is  but  a  larger  forecast.  If  we  are  to 
have  a  share  in  the  future  life,  it  must  needs  be  as 
conscious  individuals;  and  that  life  can  be  only  a 


THE  NECESSITY  OF  A  LIVING  FAITH.  47 

continuation  of  this  in  other  scenes  and  under  differ- 
ent circumstances.  When  you  were  little  children 
you  looked  merely  to  present  gratification ;  and 
many  men  and  women  remain  little  children  all 
their  lives  in  this  sense.  But  as  you  increased  in 
years  you  saw,  dimly  often,  but  the  more  clearly  the 
more  sensible  you  became,  that  present  self-denial 
might  be  wise,  as  a  means  of  preparation  for  future 
enjoyments.  At  school  and  elsewhere  you  under- 
took labors  and  suffered  privations  in  order  that  you 
might  gain  in  knowledge  and  experience.  And  the 
true  purpose  of  all  this  training  was — pray  bear  in 
mind — not  merely  that  you  might  learn  skilfully  to 
perform  certain  acts,  as  a  bear  may  be  taught  to 
dance,  or  a  pig  to  pick  out  at  command  the  spots 
on  a  playing-card,  but  for  a  very  much  higher  and 
more  important  end :  to  form  your  characters,  and 
prepare  you  not  merely  to  be  skilful  producers  of 
something,  adroit  machines,  but  virtuous  and  useful 
members  of  society.  If  education  and  training  fall 
short  of  that  effect,  they  fail  of  their  true  end ;  and 
if  they  have  not  this  supreme  end  in  view,  they  may 
easily  become  a  curse  instead  of  a  blessing  to  your- 
self, or  to  your  fellows. 

We  ought  to  regard  the  events  of  this  life  as  im- 
portant mainly  as  they  affect  our  characters,  and  not 
as  they  affect  our  mere  bodily  comforts,  or  further 


48  GOD   AND   THE   FUTURE   LIFE. 

our  plans  or  ambitions.  Wealth,  place,  power,  fame, 
there  is  the  best  reason  to  believe,  we  do  not  carry 
with  us  into  the  other  life.  We  can  carry  there 
only  ourselves,  our  spiritual  part;  and  to  build  up 
that,  to  improve  it,  to  weed  out  of  ourselves  the  evil 
passions  which,  for  some  mysterious  reason,  are  so 
ready  to  take  possession  of  us,  to  acquire  a  prefer- 
ence for  and  love  of  righteousness  and  virtue,  and  to 
cast  out  of  our  hearts  malice,  envy,  uiicharitableness, 
undue  ambition,  covetousness,  and  the  other  sins 
which  do  so  easily  beset  us — this,  you  readily  see^ 
must  be  the  real  object  of  this  life,  if  there  is  a 
future  life. 

But  that  course  which  you  should  pursue,  if  you 
believe  there  is  a  future  life  for  you — that  use  you 
would  certainly  make  of  your  life  on  this  planet,  if 
you  saw  the  future  with  the  eye  of  sight,  and  not 
dimly  through  faith — that  course  it  is  which,  as  even 
those  acknowledge  who  deny  God,  will  make  you 
the  best  citizen,  the  best  member  of  society,  the 
most  useful  and  beneficent  man  or  woman  here. 

The  main  object  of  this  practice  of  self-denial,  and 
the  other  Christian  virtues,  so  called,  is  to  fit  the  in- 
dividual for  participation  in  a  reasonable  and  enjoya- 
ble life  hereafter.  That  is  his  final  inducement  for 
their  practice ;  for  these  virtues,  though  they  are  so 
important  to  the  aggregate  which  we  call  a  Society 


THE   NECESSITY   OF   A   LIVING   FAITH.  49 

or  Nation,  do  not  necessarily,  or  always,  tend  to  the 
aggrandizement  or  even  the  temporary  happiness  of 
the  individual  here.  On  the  contrary,  their  practice 
is  often  fatal  to  his  success,  or  to  his  comfort  in  this 
life,  and  even  to  life  itself;  while  their  rejection 
leads,  as  we  frequently  see,  to  the  attainment  of  many 
of  those  things  which  are  most  desired  by  the  mass 
of  men.  Take,  for  instance,  the  case  of  a  soldier  vol- 
unteering to  serve  his  country  in  the  field,  and  a 
contractor  remaining  at  home  to  secure  wealth  out 
of  army  supplies,  or  a  speculator  gaining  a  fortune 
by  betting  on  the  event  of  a  battle  or  a  campaign. 
The  soldier,  after  great  hardships,  perishes  in  battle, 
or  of  disease,  or  in  a  prison,  leaving  his  wife  and  lit- 
tle ones  to  the  cold  pity  of  the  pension  laws ;  the 
contractor  or  speculator  amasses  a  great  fortune, 
lives  at  home  at  ease,  and  perhaps  becomes  what  is 
called  an  "  influential  member  of  society."  "Which 
of  these  two  did  his  duty  you  need  not  be  told.  But 
if  there  is  no  future  for  us,  the  contractor  and  spec- 
ulator were  evidently  the  wisest  men — the  poor  sol- 
dier who  gave  his  life  freely  out  of  a  sense  of  duty 
to  his  country  was  but  a  purblind  fool.  If  we  are 
only  animals,  with  no  hope  of  existence  beyond  this 
life  of  the  body,  it  is  not  to  be  denied  that  those  of 
us  are  the  wisest  and  most  "practical"  who  take 
care  to  get  the  most  for  ourselves  out  of  this  brief 

4 


50  .         GOD   AND   THE  FUTURE   LIFE. 

existence,  and  seize  such  share  as  by  superior  cun- 
ning or  strength  we  can  grab  of  that  which  to  us 
may  seem  most  desirable.  There  can  be,  in  that 
case,  no  question  of  moral  right  and  wrong,  or  of 
duty,  but  only  a  question  of  taste  or  preference. 

But,  you  may  properly  ask:  Is,  then,  the  poor 
soldier  required  to  accept  all  the  deprivation  and 
suffering,  the  untimely  death,  and  the  knowledge 
that  he  leaves  his  family  helpless — all  this  with  no 
present  satisfaction,  and  with  only  the  hope,  or  be- 
lief it  may  be,  that  in  the  future  life,  about  which 
he  really  knows  nothing,  he  will  have  some  kind  of 
reward  he  does  not  know  what  ? 

No ;  he  has  also  a  satisfaction  in  this  life,  and  the 
greatest  which,  on  the  whole,  man's  life  affords.  He 
has  the  joyful  consciousness  of  doing  his  duty. 

The  sense  of  duty  done  is  the  brave  man's  solace 
in  failure  or  misfortune.  lie  has  done  what  he 
could :  the  rest  he  leaves  with  God.  The  cause  he 
believed  just  has  broken  down;  the  plans  he  had 
formed  have  failed ;  the  good  he  intended  has  been 
brought  to  naught  before  his  eyes ;  he  sees  injustice 
prevail,  and  wrong  triumphant ;  but  he  has  done  his 
duty ;  and,  oppressed,  in  poverty,  in  disgrace,  in  sor- 
row, not  for  himself  but  for  others,  or  for  the  cause 
he  believes  right  and  sacred,  he  is  still  serene,  for  he 
says,  "  The  end  I  leave  with  God ;"  and  he  trusts 


THE  NECESSITY  OF  A   LIVING   FAITH.  51 

that  in  the  future  life  he  will  see  that  all  this  failure 
and  suffering  had  some  good  meaning  which  now  he 
cannot  penetrate.  Holding  this  faith,  life  is  still 
important  and  full  of  meaning  to  him,  where  other- 
wise extinction  would  be  welcome ;  and  he  feels  and 
knows  that  what  concerned  him  was  only  to  do  his 
duty,  and  leave  the  result  to  God. 

Your  lives  will  have  been  thin  and  profitless  if, 
before  you  come  to  middle-age  you  have  not,  more 
than  once  or  twice,  had  occasion  to  seek  this  conso- 
lation, this  only  real  solace  for  failure  in  some  enter- 
prise or  effort  where,  not  your  own  aggrandizement, 
but  the  benefit  of  others,  was  your  aim. 

And  observe  that  it  is  because  there  is  a  God,  be- 
cause there  is  a  future  life,  because  this  present  life 
is  not  all  we  have  to  look  for,  that  this  cheer  is  ready 
for  your  soul,  to  maintain  its  sweetness  and  serenity. 
Leave  out  God,  as  the  all-wise  disposer  of  events, 
and  the  failure  of  your  efforts  and  plans  is  final  de- 
feat for  you,  and  you  would  soon  be  persuaded  that 
the  service  of  your  fellow-men,  the  least  grateful  of 
tasks,  was  but  childish  folly,  and  that  unselfish  de- 
votion to  disagreeable  duties  was  the  vagary  of  a 
distempered  mind. 

It  needs  all  the  impulse  which  can  be  got  from 
a  permeating  belief  in  God  and  the  eternal  life  to 
give  men  patience,  unselfishness,  endurance  in  the 


52  GOD  AND  THE  FUTURE   LIFE. 

performance  of  disagreeable  duties,  persistence  in 
irksome,  and  with  men  of  great  natural  powers  al- 
most unendurable  self-restraint,  and  contentment  and 
moderation  among  men  of  lower  powers  and  less 
force.  Animated  by  a  right  faith  in  God,  the  man 
says,  "  I  will  do  my  duty,  let  what  will  happen."  He 
leaves  the  result  to  God. 

It  was  in  this  sense  that  St.  Augustine  wrote  that 
we  "ought  to  cultivate  a  willingness  to  be  damned" 
— a  readiness  to  leave  mere  results  to  the  Great 
Judge  and  disposer  of  all.  It  is  because  the  practice 
of  self-denial  and  the  performance  of  duty  leads  us 
we  cannot  know  whither  in  this  life,  but  compels  us 
to  a  course  founded  on  other  and  higher  considera- 
tions than  our  present  welfare,  or  comfort,  or  success, 
that  we  say  the  chief  inducements  to  this  higher  and 
Christian  life  are  not  the  pleasure  or  indulgence  of 
the  body,  the  attainment  of  "  success,"  or  the  grati- 
fication of  those  desires  and  passions  which  we  need 
the  body  to  fulfil. 


FAITH  AND  SCIENCE.  53 


VI. 

FAITH  AND  SCIENCE. 

SEVERAL  reasons  have  combined  to  cause  the  re- 
cent rapid  spread  of  unbelief  in  the  Christian  world. 

The  great  and  wonderful  advances  in  scientific 
discovery  made  within  this  century  have  persuaded 
many  unscientific  minds  that  there  is  now  no  longer 
any  further  need  for  God;  which  is  as  though  a 
school-boy,  having  examined  the  steam-chest,  boiler, 
piston-rod  and  valves  of  a  locomotive  -  engine,  and 
satisfied  himself  that  they  all  work  harmoniously  to- 
gether, and  with  a  quite  striking  adaptation  of  all 
the  parts  to  a  'common  purpose,  should  thereupon 
decide  that  there  were  undoubtedly  no  machinists 
or  engineers.  Though  what  we  know  bears  but  an 
infinitesimal  proportion  to  the  sum  of  knowledge,  we 
are  constantly  ascertaining  more  and  more  concern- 
ing the  machinery  of  the  universe ;  but  surely  that 
is  no  valid  reason  why  we  should  doubt  that  this 
marvellous  and  complicated  and  harmoniously  work- 
ing machine  had  a  maker  ? 

The  rigorous  methods  necessary  for  the  accurate 


54  GOD  AND  THE   FUTURE  LIFE. 

investigation  of  material  phenomena  have  established 
a  proper  habit  of  doubt,  which  is  sometimes  trans- 
ferred, unconsciously  it  may  be,  from  its  true  field, 
the  inquiry  into  physical  facts,  to  the  concerns  of 
the  spiritual  world.  Thus  we  find  some  men  of 
science,  though  not  many,  refusing  to  admit  the  ex- 
istence of  God  on  the  ground  that  they  need  not 
consider  what  they  cannot  see  with  their  eyes  or 
prove  in  the  crucible. 

But  to  assert  that  there  are  none  but  physical  phe- 
nomena is  surely  the  pedantry  of  science.  It  is  to 
ignore  forces  which  are  obvious  to  all  who  read  his- 
tory, or  consider  the  acts  of  men,  or  look  into  their 
own  hearts.  That  there  are  moral  or  spiritual  forces 
at  work  in  the  world,  no  one  can  doubt ;  and  while 
the  naturalist  may  choose  not  to  investigate  these, 
he  cannot  scientifically  deny  their  existence  simply 
because  he  does  not  meet  with  them  in  the  processes 
of  his  laboratory.  Even  in  physical  investigations 
the  ultimate  facts  and  most  important  forces  cannot 
be  thus  proved  or  identified. 

Mr.  Buckle,  who  had  a  great  but  short-lived  repu- 
tation before  you  were  born,  undertook  to  show  that 
the  character  of  a  nation  could  be  predicated  from 
the  nature  of  the  climate  and  the  fertility  of  the 
soil  where  it  existed.  His  argument  was,  that  men 
were  merely  the  creatures  of  their  physical  surround- 


FAITH  AND   SCIENCE.  55 

ings ;  but  it  was  shrewdly  said  of  him  by  one  of  his 
critics,  "  He  omitted  to  explain  the  contrast  between 
the  ancient  Greek  nation  and  the  present  one :  there 
must  have  been  an  extraordinary  revolution  in  the 
climate  or  the  soil." 

He  believed  that  out  of  the  past,  if  it  were  closely 
scrutinized,  the  future  might  be  intelligently  pre- 
dicted ;  and  it  seemed  to  him  a  point  gained  for  his 
theory  when  he  was  able  to  show  statistically  that 
out  of  a  thousand  letters  put  into  a  post-office  a  cer- 
tain average  are  sure  to  be  misdirected.  But  it 
was  presently  seen  that  this  fact  was  more  curious 
than  important,  because  Mr.  Buckle  was  unable  to 
tell  us  which  of  the  thousand  letter-writers  blun- 
dered ;  and  it  is  the  conduct  of  the  individual  and 
the  fate  of  the  individual  which  are  of  real  impor- 
tance, and  not  those  of  the  aggregate  called  a  society 
or  nation. 

Man  is  undoubtedly  affected  by  his  circumstances ; 
but  it  is  important  to  remember  also  that  he  affects 
those  circumstances  by  his  character,  his  will ;  and 
that,  as  it  is  the  individual  character  and  will  which 
here  come  in  play,  we  cannot  reason  profitably  from 
aggregates.  For  instance,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the 
life  of  the  very  poor  in  our  great  cities  is,  in  the 
present  state  of  what  we  call  civilization,  in  many 
ways  difficult  and  debasing.  Poverty  and  depend- 


56  GOD  AND  THE   FUTURE  LIFE. 

ence  are  real  evils,  partly  because  they  bring  physi- 
cal discomfort  and  suffering,  and  deprivation  of  pleas- 
ures, but  mainly  because  they  tend  to  make  the  life 
mean,  and  to  surround  it  with  morally  debasing  cir- 
cumstances. Yet  no  one  who  has  really  known  even 
the  very  poor  but  will  tell  you  that  he  has  found 
among  them  more  self-sacrifice,  greater  love  to  the 
neighbor,  less  greed  and  covetousness,  than  among 
the  same  number  of  the  comfortable  and  wealthy. 
This  is  so  true,  and  so  universally  true,  that  on  the 
self-restraint  and  self-denial  of  the  poor  society  de- 
pends for  its  security  in  all  modern  states. 

It  is  not  to  be  doubted  that  this  self-restraint  comes 
mainly,  if  not  altogether,  out  of  their  faith  in  a  fut- 
ure life,  their  continuing  trust  that  there  is  a  God, 
and  that  he  is  a  just  and  fatherly  being.  If  you 
could  persuade  the  tenement -house  population  of 
New  York  that  there  is  no  future  life  beyond  the 
grave,  they  would  sack  the  Fifth  Avenue  overnight. 
In  all  modern  countries  where  faith  has  been  ex- 
pelled by  the  perversion  or  debasement  of  religion, 
and  where  the  thought  and  hope  of  the  future  life 
have  measurably  died  out  among  the  people,  we  see 
a  great  increase  of  armies  as  a  police  force,  while,  co- 
incidently,  we  see  the  populations  more  and  more 
given  over  to  the  longing  for  mere  bodily  enjoy- 
ments, with,  at  the  same  time,  the  continual  increase 


FAITH  AND  SCIENCE.  57 

of  discontent  and  a  spirit  of  mutiny.  If  you  will 
reflect,  you  must  admit  that  this  is  only  a  logical 
result.  If  there  is  no  future  life,  if  there  is  no  God, 
if  after  this  brief  existence  comes  extinction,  why 
should  multitudes  live  in  deprivation  and  want,  and 
see  the  more  cunning  and  unscrupulous  few  rolling 
in  luxury?  Why  should  not  the  most  numerous 
class  of  society  combine  against  the  least  numerous, 
and  force  them  to  "  divide,"  even  if  the  dividend 
were  only  of  misery  ? 

Man  is  undoubtedly  affected  by  his  surroundings, 
but  he  is  not  made  by  them ;  he  is  not  their  creat- 
ure. If  he  were  he  would  be  only  an  animal. 

It  is  possible  for  the  poorest  and  the  most  wretch- 
ed to  be  good.  There  lies  the  true  democracy. 

If  any  one  objects  that  you  cannot  prove,  as  physi- 
cal facts  are  proved,  that  there  is  a  God  and  a  future 
life,  your  reply  is,  that  those  who  deny  lie  under  pre- 
cisely the  same  disability.  They,  too,  must  go  be- 
yond the  senses.  They  say,  "  We  see  nothing,  there- ' 
fore  we  assert  that  nothing  is  there."  But  you  may 
justly  ask,  "  Do  you  see  a  vacancy,  a  hiatus  where 
that  should  lie  which  we  assert?"  And  they  can 
only  confess  that  they  cannot  tell ;  their  sight  does 
not  reach  so  far.  That  is  the  truth. 

Now,  even  in  physical  investigations,  the  fact  that 
a  phenomenon  is  not  observed  is  not  held  to  prove 


58  GOD  AND  THE   FUTURE  LIFE. 

its  non-occurrence ;  and  there  are  sounds  which  we 
cannot  hear;  there  are  heat-rays  which  we  cannot 
feel ;  there  are  worlds  in  space,  and  there  are  minute 
organisms  about  us,  which  are  alike  imperceptible  to 
our  senses. 

We  have  looked  somewhat  into  the  machinery  of 
the  universe  and  are  justly  proud  of  the  little  we 
have  found  out ;  and  yet  we  know  scarcely  the  rudi- 
ments of  its  laws.  The  further  science  penetrates, 
the  vaster  does  it  see  the  field  before  it  to  be.  The 
more  questions  are  settled,  the  more — and  not  the 
less — as  every  true  man  of  science  sees  and  knows, 
remain  unsolved.  Scarcely  is  a  new  law  discovered 
than  further  research  brings  into  view  exceptions 
which  become,  in  their  turn,  the  basis  of  other  laws. 

Do  not  make  the  serious  mistake,  however,  of  fear- 
ing the  advance  of  science — as  though  it  could,  in 
some  way,  injure  religion.  All  truth  is  necessarily 
of  God ;  and  no  array  of  facts,  no  scientific  discov- 
ery— which  must  concern  facts  and  establish  them — 
can  possibly  injure  religious  truth.  There  is  no 
"  conflict  between  religion  and  science."  There  may 
be  a  contention  between  false  science  and  religion,  or 
between  false  religion  and  science ;  but  out  of  that 
can  come  only  good — a  clearer  demonstration  of  the 
truth.  While  on  the  one  hand  some  men  of  science 
have  rashly  said  in  their  hearts,  "  There  is  no  God," 


FAITH  AND  SCIENCE.  59 

many  truly  religions  but  unscientific  persons  have, 
for  their  parts,  opposed  and  denounced  scientific  in- 
quiry as  dangerous  to  religion.  This  opposition  has 
done  and  can  do  no  good.  It  is  a  pity,  for  instance, 
that  some  theologians  have  undertaken  to  oppose, 
and  sometimes  to  denounce,  the  Darwinian  theory 
of  evolution,  as  though  it  attacked  first  the  existence 
of  a  Creator,  and,  second,  the  possession  of  a  spiritual 
nature  or  being  by  man.  It  does  neither.  It  can 
concern  itself  only  with  physical  facts  and  phenom- 
ena. The  learned  botanist,  Dr.  Asa  Gray,  himself 
both  a  true  man  of  science  and  an  earnest  Christian, 
has  tersely  pointed  out  that  the  theory  of  evolution 
considers  only  "how  things  go  on,"  and  not  at  all 
"  how  things  began." 

Nor  does  the  inquiry  touch  the  higher  or  spiritual 
part  of  man  at  all.  Words  often  do  a  curious  mis- 
chief, and  to  many  sincere  men  and  women  the 
phrase  " origin  of  species"  has  seemed  to  denote 
that  Mr.  Darwin  was  considering  the  origin  of  life 
— which,  nevertheless,  is  as  far  as  possible  from  the 
truth.  Mr.  Darwin  himself  wrote,  in  his  first  book : 
"  There  is  grandeur  in  this  view  of  life,  with  its 
several  powers,  having  been  originally  breathed  by 
the  Creator  into  a  few  forms  or  into  one ;  and  that, 
while  this  planet  has  gone  cycling  on,  according  to 
the  fixed  law  of  gravity,  from  so  simple  a  beginning 


60  GOD  AND  THE  FUTURE  LIFE. 

endless  forms,  most  beautiful  and  most  wonderful, 
have  been  and  are  being  evolved." 

Surely  the  philosopher  who  wrote  thus  need  not 
be  held  the  enemy  of  our  faith  in  God  ? 


SCIENCE  AND  THE  FUTURE  LIFE.  61 


VII. 

SCIENCE  AND   THE  FUTURE  LIFE. 

THE  most  notable  effort  of  much  of  the  scientific 
investigation  of  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  or  more 
has  been  to  show  in  how  many  ways  the  human  race 
are  like  the  beasts.  Certainly,  it  has  been  clearly 
demonstrated  that  mankind  are  very  closely  and 
wonderfully  related  to  those  we  call  the  lower  ani- 
mals, so  that  the  reasonable  conclusion  of  science  is 
hardly  to  be  doubted,  that  our  bodies  are,  in  fact, 
made  on  the  same  general  plan  as  theirs,  and  appar- 
ently by  the  same  Maker ;  that  our  physical  part  is 
closely  related  to  theirs ;  and  that  it  is  not  impossible 
nor  even  improbable — though  not  scientifically  estab- 
lished— that,  so  far  as  the  human  body  goes,  it  may 
have  been  developed  out  of  the  body  of  some  ape, 
who,  in  his  turn,  in  the  course  of  ages,  was  devel- 
oped out  of  some  creature  far  lower  in  the  scale  of 
life  than  himself. 

Now,  those  who  believe  that  there  is  a  God,  and 
that  he  is  the  omnipotent  Creator  of  the  universe, 
ought  not  to  deny  that,  if  he  wished,  he  was  able 


62  GOD  AND  THE   FUTURE  LIFE. 

to  cany  on  the  work  of  creation  by  the  method 
supposed  by  Mr.  Darwin ;  or  that,  further,  as  in  our 
belief  he  is  also  omniscient,  he  may  in  his  wisdom 
have  seen  that  this  was,  on  the  whole,  the  best  way. 
Certainly,  the  thought  that  the  Creator  was  able  to 
set  in  motion,  in  the  very  beginning,  laws  which 
should  produce  the  infinitely  varied  results  we  know, 
gives  us  a  higher  idea  of  his  admirable  genius,  if 
that  word  may  be  used  in  such  a  connection,  or  of 
his  wonderful  wisdom  and  power,  than  the  other 
notion,  that  he  interfered  anew  at  every  step  in 
the  creation,  and  made  now  a  turtle,  and  anon  a 
mastodon,  and  still  later  a  rhinoceros,  a  lion,  or  a 
monkey. 

Admitting,  however,  the  work  of  creation  to  have 
gone  on  through  a  single  impetus,  as  Mr.  Darwin's 
theory  suggests,  it  by  no  means  follows  that  God 
ceased  thereafter  to  be  an  active  being,  and  became 
a  nonentity  in  the  universe  to  which  he  had  given 
that  impetus ;  or  that,  as  some  one  lately  suggested, 
God,  having  set  the  work  of  creation  agoing  by  the 
fiat  of  his  will,  thereupon  committed  suicide. 

Nor  does  it  follow  that  because  we  are,  on  the  side 
of  our  bodies,  so  closely  related  to  the  beasts  we  are, 
therefore,  only  beasts,  or  no  more  than  beasts,  our- 
selves. This  would  be  taking  for  granted  much 
more  than  is  proved,  or  even  suggested.  A  person 


SCIENCE  AND  THE  FUTURE  LIFE.  63 

only  moderately  familiar  with  machinery  might  ex 
amine  two  complicated  engines,  and  seeing  in  both 
a  certain  number  of  wheels  and  other  parts  much 
alike,  might  conclude  that  both  machines  were  un- 
doubtedly intended  and  made  exclusively  for  the 
same  uses.  And  yet  he  might  be  entirely  mistaken, 
and  his  mistake  would  be  shown  whenever  the  two 
machines  were  set  to  work,  and  when  one  was 
seen  to  do  all  the  work  of  the  other,  plus  other 
work  or  results  of  which  the  first  was  totally  inca- 
pable. 

So,  as  to  men  and  animals,  it  is  not  difficult  to 
show  that  they  have  a  great  many  parts  alike ;  that 
in  many  respects  their  functions  are  the  same ;  that, 
indeed,  up  to  a  certain  point  the  two  machines  are 
curiously  and  wonderfully  similar — and  to  that  ex- 
tent we  are  strangely  related  to  the  beasts.  But 
when  we  watch  the  operations  of  the  two  machines 
we  are  compelled  to  see  that  one  does  work  of  which 
the  other  is  incapable ;  and  what  is  more,  that  even 
the  functions  which  both  have  in  common  are  per- 
formed on  the  whole  better  and  more  effectively  by 
man  than  by  the  beasts. 

We  see  that  the  animals  fulfil  all  their  functions 
completely  here  in  this  life.  They  eat,  drink,  and 
multiply,  and  they  seek  to  do  no  more.  Some  of 
them  do  not  even  fulfil  these  ends  as  perfectly  in 


64:  GOD  AND  THE   FUTURE  LIFE. 

that  independent  condition  which  we  call  their  nat- 
ural state  as  when  they  are  under  the  care  of  man  ; 
but  in  their  best  condition  not  only  do  they  do  no 
more  than  this :  they  have  no  higher  desires  or  aspi- 
rations. All  that  is  possible  to  them  is  accomplished 
in  their  narrow  span  of  existence  here. 

Now,  we  have  only  to  look  at  mankind  to  see  that 
with  us  matters  are  not  only  different,  but  enormous- 
ly so.  Even  as  to  our  mastery  of  the  conditions  of 
life  on  this  planet  and  in  these  bodies  we  are  su- 
perior to  the  beasts.  Animals  as  well  as  plants  are 
able  to  live  only  within  certain  limits  of  climate, 
or  soil,  or  both,  each  kind  having  its  bounds  fixed, 
apparently,  outside  of  which  it  ceases  to  exist.  Man 
alone  has  been  able  not  only  to  live  but  to  think  in 
all  climates  and  on  all  soils,  and  has  been  able  to  do 
this  violence  to  a  law  of  nature  which,  to  a  degree, 
controls  his  body  as  it  does  those  of  the  beasts,  by  an 
inborn  power  of  protecting  himself  against  the  rig- 
ors of  change.  Here  the  one  machine  seems  clearly 
to  be  superior  to  the  other  even  in  those  parts  which 
are  similar.  Animals  make  no  advances  in  the  arts 
of  living — of  physical  living,  I  mean ;  they  display 
merely  a  very  limited,  though  often  curious,  and  al- 
ways interesting,  power  of  adapting  themselves  to 
new  circumstances,  as  where  a  bird  changes  the  form 
of  her  nest  because  the  more  usual  form  would  not 


SCIENCE  AND  THE  FUTURE   LIFE.  65 

be  convenient  or  safe  for  the  place  where  she  is  im- 
pelled to  rear  her  young.  Man,  on  the  other  hand, 
unceasingly  reaches  forward  on  this  line.  Animals 
are  confined  to  certain  kinds  of  food — some  are  car- 
nivorous, some  graminivorous ;  man,  alone,  except 
where  he  has  forcibly  trained  the  cat  or  dog  to  do 
violence  to  its  natural  tastes,  is  omnivorous. 

In  these  and  many  other  respects  man  is,  even  as 
to  his  body,  essentially  abler  than  the  beasts ;  but 
when  we  come  to  consider  the  qualities  of  his  mind, 
here  man  not  merely  rises,  as  we  see,  above  the 
beasts :  he  is,  so  far  as  that  is  concerned,  a  creature 
of  an  entirely  different  kind ;  he  has  faculties,  pow- 
ers, qualities,  aspirations,  which  are  not  possessed  by 
the  animals ;  of  which  they  have  no  trace. 

The  difference  here  is  not  of  degree,  but  of  kind. 
To  return  to  the  illustration  of  two  machines :  here 
we  discover  that  the  one  machine,  already  doing  bet- 
ter than  the  other  the  work  common  to  the  two,  now 
does  in  addition  work,  and  produces  results,  of  which 
the  other  is  totally  incapable,  and  which  is  of  an  im- 
measurably higher  order. 

To  prove  that,  so  iar  as  his  body  goes,  man  is  only 
and  exactly  an  animal,  neither  more  nor  less,  could 
thus  only  make  clearer  to  the  scientific  mind  the  ex- 
treme importance  and  the  essential  distinction  of 
those  qualities  and  faculties  which  man  alone  pos- 

5 


:66  r   GOD   AND  TIIE  FUTURE  LIFE. 

Besses,  and  in  fact  lessens  the  probability  that  he  has, 
as  to  his  intellectual  parts,  been  "evolved"  from  the 
animal  creation. 

The  splendid  generalization  of  Darwin  has  dazzled 
and  fascinated  scientific  men,  as  well  it  might ;  but 
no  one  would  be  readier  than  its  author,  I  believe,  to 
acknowledge  that  while  it  does  not  at  all  concern  the 
spiritual  part  of  man,  but  only  his  body,  it  does  not, 
even  as  a  physical  theory,  explain  or  account  for  all 
the  facts  of  physical  life ;  as,  to  take  only  a  single  in- 
stance, the  various,  and  yet  in  each  case  apparently 
fixed,  periods  assigned  by  the  Creator  to  the  lives  of 
animals,  and  plants  as  well. 

Why,  for  instance,  are  some  plants  annuals,  some 
perennials?  Why  may  the  oak  live  a  thousand 
years,  while  many  other  plants  live  but  a  year  ? 
Why  is  a  dog's  limit  of  life  fifteen,  or,  at  most,  and 
in  exceptional  instances,  twenty  years,  and  a  parrot's 
a  hundred?  Why  does  a  horse  live  but  thirty  or 
forty  years,  an  elephant  seventy  or  eighty,  and  a 
crow  still  longer?  Why  is  the  natural  limit  of  life 
so  varied  in  creatures  essentially  similar  in  structure, 
built  on  the  same  general  plan  ? 

But  you  see  here,  what  was  pointed  out  to  you 
above,  that  the  inquirer  into  natural  phenomena  is 
like  a  woodman  in  a  boundless  forest — each  tree  he 
fells  only  opens  to  him  new  and  unsuspected  vistas. 


SCIENCE   AND  THE  FUTURE   LIFE.  67 

Darwin  showed  that  individuals  produce  their 
like,  with  slight  possible  differences  which  may,  un- 
der favoring  conditions,  become  permanent ;  and  for 
nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  scientific  men  have 
been  busily  engaged  in  proving  this  hypothesis,  and 
ascertaining  how  much  ground  it  would  cover.  But 
Dr.  Gray,  himself  a  Darwinian,  justly  remarks  that, 
after  all,  "  the  great  primary  law  of  inheritance  re- 
mains a  mysterious  fact." 

The  stimulus  which  the  publication  of  Mr.  Dar- 
win's first  book  gave  to  the  faithful  and  accurate 
study  of  natural  phenomena  is  one  of  the  very  great 
services  he  rendered  to  the  lovers  of  knowledge. 
But  some  men  of  science  begin  to  see  that  it  might 
be  useful  now  to  look  at  the  other  side — to  take 
equal  pains  to  discover  and  record  those  cases  and 
phenomena  which  the  theory  of  evolution  does  not 
cover.  In  this  way  science  might  perhaps  hit  upon 
some  other  laws,  less  important,  but  yet  important 
as  laws,  which,  in  fixing  its  eye  too  closely  upon  one 
law  alone,  it  may  have  overlooked.  Thus,  the  dis- 
coverer of  a  great  river  might,  in  the  eagerness  of 
his  zeal,  follow  its  course  thousands  of  miles  to  its 
distant  head  among  the  mountains ;  nor  should  we 
blame  him.  But  he  would  deserve  still  more  of  man- 
kind, and  especially  of  geographers,  if  he  should  later 
also  undertake  the  exploration  of  its  tributaries.  And 


68  GOD  AND  THE  FUTURE   LIFE. 

while  lie  might  find  that  the  Ohio,  the  Cumber- 
land, the  Arkansas,  the  Red  river  were,  after  all,  but 
pigmy  streams  compared  with  the  great  Father  of 
Waters,  still,  in  exploring  them  he  would  have  done 
the  important  work  of  marking  the  great  water- 
sheds of  the  continent.  And  when  he  came  to  the 
Missouri  he  might  well  stop,  amazed,  and  wonder 
which  of  the  two  mighty  streams  at  whose  con- 
fluence he  stood  was  ike  river,  and  which  its  af- 
fluent. 

It  now  seems  probable  that  the  theory  of  evolu- 
tion may  represent  the  mighty  Mississippi  among  the 
laws  which  have  been  set  to  control,  in  the  wisdom 
of  God,  not  the  origin  or  beginning  but  the  going 
on  or  development  of  things.  But  there  may  be 
other  and  tributary  laws  whose  existence  is  still 
unsuspected,  but  which  science  will  begin  to  look 
for  whenever  it  takes  its  eye  off  the  discovery  which 
for  a  generation  has  charmed  and  fascinated  it ;  when 
it  acknowledges  that  evolution  answers  many  ques- 
tions, but  not  all,  even  in  its  legitimate  domain. 

You  are,  however,  to  remember  that  what  science 
calls  "laws"  are  only  formulae  deduced  from  obser- 
vation, and  intended  to  tell  us  that,  given  certain 
circumstances  or  collocations  of  things,  and  certain 
results  will  follow.  Observation  has  shown,  for  in- 
stance, that  the  law  of  gravitation,  as  it  is  called,  by 


SCIENCE  AND  THE  FUTURE  LIFE.  69 

which  every  material  body  tends  to  approach  toward 
every  other  material  body  with  a  certain  determinate 
force,  is  of  universal  application ;  so  far  as  we  know, 
on  it  depends  the  stability  not  of  our  system  mere- 
ly, but  of  the  universe.  But  why  this  is  so  no  one 
knows.  We  know,  to  come  to  lesser  "  laws,"  that 
among  the  beasts  all  ruminants,  and  they  alone,  have 
the  foot  cleft,  and  that  only  among  this  class  are 
frontal  horns  found.  Wide  observation  has  shown 
this  to  be  so  invariable  that  the  naturalist,  seeing 
the  imprint  of  a  cleft  foot,  knows  at  once  the  de- 
tails of  structure  of  the  animal  which  left  it;  and 
Cuvier,  when  he  saw  in  a  nightmare  a  vision  of  the 
conventional  devil,  exclaimed  with  contempt,  "Horns 
and  hoofs!  No,  you  are  not  carnivorous."  But 
why  the  cleft  foot  should  be  the  invariable  mark  of 
a  particular  order  of  animals — why  with  that  should 
go  teeth,  bones,  digestive  apparatus  of  a  peculiar 
form — no  one  knows. 

We  have  ascertained  that  certain  usually  solid  sub- 
stances melt  at  certain  fixed  temperatures — that  we 
call  a  law;  but  we  do  not  know  why  they  are  thus 
peculiarly  subject  to  the  influence  of  a  certain,  and 
in  most  cases  differing,  temperature.  We  know  that 
almost  but  not  entirely  all  fluids  expand  as  they  are 
made  hotter,  and  contract  as  they  are  made  colder, 
but  we  do  not  know  why  this  is  so.  Nor  do  we 


70  GOD  AND  THE  FUTURE  LIFE. 

know  why  water  forms  one  of  the  exceptions  to  this 
general  law ;  although  we  do  know  that  on  the  fact 
that  water  expands  instead  of  contracting  when  it 
becomes  ice  depend  many  of  the  most  important 
natural  phenomena,  and  that  if  the  contrary  hap- 
pened— why  it  should  not  we  do  not  know — not 
only  would  the  disintegration  of  rocks  and  other 
important  effects  in  the  great  laboratory  of  nature 
be  stopped  or  checked,  but  our  planet  would  not 
even  be  habitable,  because  of  immense  and  constant- 
ly increasing  accumulations  of  ice  in  the  oceans  and 
streams,  where,  contracting  as  it  formed,  it  would 
sink  to  the  bottom  and  remain  ice,  instead  of  float- 
ing on  the  surface,  to  be  melted  by  the  sun's  rays. 

The  fact  that  we  are  able  to  discover  laws  accord- 
ing to  which  the  infinite  variety  of  material  objects 
about  us  is  arranged  and  subsists  shows  us,  however, 
that  the  universe  is  not  a  disorderly  or  hap-hazard 
aggregation  of  things.  Order  supposes  an  ordering 
mind;  and  the  astronomer  Herschel  shrewdly  re- 
marked that  the  universe  bore  to  him  all  the  marks 
of  a  "manufactured  article"  —  a  product — a  some- 
thing which  did  not  merely  happen,  but  was  done 
on  purpose. 

Science,  far  from  eliminating  God,  proves  that 
there  must  have  been  a  God — one  God — one  su- 
preme ordering  mind,  not  several;  a  Creator  intel- 


SCIENCE  AND  THE  FUTURE  LIFE.  71 

ligent,  in  the  sense  of  far -seeing — capable,  as  the 
Bible  says,  of  seeing  the  end  from  the  beginning-; 
wise  enough  to  foresee  the  remotest  effects  of  the 
laws  He  put  in  operation  by  His  will,  and  to  choose, 
also,  out  of  perhaps  an  infinite  number  of  methods 
that  one  which  to  Him  seemed  best.  For  science  has 
demonstrated  that  the  universe  might,  in  some  de- 
tails, at  least,  have  been  differently  constituted  from 
what  it  is ;  and  therefore,  that  the  Creator  must  have 
exercised  a  choice  is  intelligible  even  to  such  finite 
minds  as  ours. 

Why  God  made  the  choice  He  did  we  do  not  know. 
Our  senses  are  too  dull  even  to  grasp  all  those  phe- 
nomena of  nature  the  probability  of  which  we  are 
able  to  perceive.  X)ur  bodily  senses  are  the  modes  by 
which  the  Creator  has  enabled  us  in  this  life  to  ap- 
prehend what  goes  on;  but  science  has  established 
the  wonderful  fact  that  there  may  be,  and  undoubted- 
ly are,  phenomena  beyond  the  reach  of  these  senses. 
Thus,  sound  vibrations  of  more  than  thirty -eight 
thousand  strokes  per  second  are  inaudible  to  most 
human  ears,  though  some  few  can  detect  a  some- 
what higher  pitch.  But  physicists  see  no  reason  to 
doubt  that  there  may  be  sound  vibrations  all  about 
us  of  such  rapidity  as  to  be  entirely  inaudible  to  our 
ears ;  and  it  is  now  suspected,  though  not  knowrn,  that 
to  some  insects  these  rapid  vibrations,  inaudible  to  us, 


72  GOD  AND  THE  FUTURE  LIFE. 

are  so  well  apprehended  as  to  be  for  them  means 
of  intercommunication.  Again,  there  are  rays  at 
both  ends  of  the  spectrum  which  our  senses  do  not 
directly  perceive — thermal  rays  which  are  apparent 
to  us  only  by  help  of  the  thermometer,  because  they 
do  not  give  light  to  our  eyes,  but  give  out  only  heat ; 
and  at  the  other  end  color  rays  to  which  our  vision 
is  equally  insensible,  but  whose  existence  is  estab- 
lished for  us  by  their  chemical  action.  But  science 
gives  no  reason  to  believe,  and  scientific  men  do  not 
assert,  that  we  know  the  absolute  limit  of  the  spec- 
trum at  either  end.  The  range  of  sound  and  of 
color  is,  therefore,  certainly  much  greater  than  we 
recognize  through  the  senses. 

Thus,  while  on  the  one  hand  we  see  clearly  that 
uur  powers  of  observation  are  limited  by  the  limita- 
tions of  our  bodily  senses,  on  the  other  we  just  as 
clearly  perceive,  in  these  and  other  instances,  that 
there  is  a  world,  even  a  physical  world,  beyond  our 
ken ;  that  the  universe  which  we  can  explore  with 
the  help  of  our  bodily  senses  and  organs  is  but  a 
part — who  can  tell  how  large  or  how  small  a  part  ? — 
of  the  entire  creation ;  that  not  only  is  there  some- 
thing beyond,  but  even  that  there  may  be  things  in 
our  immediate  presence  and  surroundings  which  are 
not  to  us  known,  because  our  bodily  senses  are  unfit- 
ted to  recognize  them. 


SCIENCE  AND  THE  FUTURE   LIFE.  73 

To  assert,  therefore,  on  scientific  grounds,  first, 
that  there  is  no  God,  and,  second,  that  there  is  no 
future  life  attainable  by  us,  would  be  extremely 
rash,  and  plainly  contrary  to  reason.  It  would  be  to 
argue  that  a  vast  collection  of  things,  the  most  re- 
markable quality  of  which  is  the  orderliness  with 
which  they  are  all  arranged,  is  proof  that  they  were 
never  arranged  at  all,  but  came  about  by  mere  hap- 
hazard. And  it  would  be  to  argue  that  because  even 
in  physical  inquiries  we  must  acknowledge  that 
there  are  objects  and  phenomena  beyond  our  per- 
ception, therefore  we  are  to  disbelieve  in  a  future 
life  for  our  spiritual  parts,  highly  probable  though 
unprovable,  unless  we  have  proof  submitted  to  our 
bodily  senses. 

On  the  contrary,  scientific  investigation,  the  far- 
ther it  reaches  out,  only  makes  the  existence  of  God 
and  the  survival  of  our  souls  after  the  death  of  the 
body  the  more  reasonable  hypothesis.  That  the  ma- 
terial universe  should  have  had  a  Creator,  an  intelli- 
gent, foreseeing,  and  planning  constructor,  all  science 
shows  to  be,  at  the  least,  very  much  more  probable 
than  that  so  orderly,  harmoniously  acting,  and  won- 
derful a  machine  should  have  come  about  by  mere 
chance.  That  the  Creator,  having  set  this  vast  and 
complicated  machinery  in  motion,  should  then  have 
abdicated  or  committed  suicide,  is  so  violent  and  im- 


74  GOB  AND  THE  FUTURE  LIFE. 

probable  a  supposition,  that  you  have  a  right  to  de- 
mand positive  proof  before  entertaining  it.  Finally, 
that  we  have  desires,  capacities  for  knowledge  and 
enjoyment  and  usefulness  which  our  present  phys- 
ical life  is  greatly  inadequate  to  enable  us  to  fulfil, 
while  it  is  by  no  means  a  positive  proof  of  a  future 
life,  is  certainly,  so  far  as  it  goes,  an  indication  ;  and 
we  may  rightfully  require  those  who  deny  the  fut- 
ure life  to  account  for  these  desires  and  capacities, 
and  put  upon  them  the  burden  of  proving  their  as- 
sertion; because  the  probability  is  strongly  against 
them.  : 

If  we  find  the  theory  of  a  future  life  entirely  in 
harmony  with  the  known  laws  of  our  being ;  if  it  is 
furthermore  required  for  the  welfare,  and  even  the 
existence,  of  human  society  on  this  planet;  if  it  con- 
forms with  the  other  phenomena  which  we  observe 
in  ourselves  and  in  nature,  or  at  least  if  it  offends 
none,  we  may  safely  and  even  scientifically  maintain 
that  this  theory  shall  be  held  true — until  it  is  dis- 
proved. 

But  observe  that  those  who  deny  are  the  very  men 
who  admit  that  no  proof,  in  the  sense  demanded  in 
physical  investigations,  is  attainable  by  them  on  this 
subject.  They  have  no  evidence  to  produce  on  their 
side. 


THE  LIMITS  OF  SPECULATION1.  75 


VIII. 

• 

THE  LIMITS  OF  SPECULATION. 

IF  the  world  was  made  by  G  od,  instead  of  hap- 
pening by  chance,  we  may,  I  think,  believe  that  He 
had  some  purpose  or  design  in  the  making  of  it. 
What  we  thus  conceive  of  Him  in  regard  to  the 
general  creation,  there  is  a  disposition  in  the  human 
mind  to  hold  also  of  details.  The  animals  live  their 
lives  without  thought  of  such  whys  and  wherefores. 
The  pig  contentedly  eats  his  acorns,  and  does  not 
even  look  up  into  the  oak  to  see  whence  his  supplies 
are  dropping ;  and  a  cow  at  pasture  does  not  trouble 
herself  about  the  origin  of  the  grass ;  and  if  she 
thought  about  it  at  all,  which  she  does  not,  would 
no  doubt  be  quite  satisfied  that  it  was  made  for  her 
to  eat;  or,  to  put  the  matter  in  the  language  of 
philosophers,  that  to  be  eaten  by  a  cow  was  the 
"  final  cause  "  of  the  grass. 

If  you  should  assert  that  the  real  "final  cause" 
of  the  grass  was  to  be  turned  by  the  cow  into  milk 
and  butter  for  your  own  use,  you  would  go  only  a 
short  step  further  than  the  cow,  in  precisely  the  same 
direction ;  and  you  might  not  be  any  nearer  a  right 


76  GOD  AND  THE  FUTURE   LIFE. 

guess  at  the  purposes  of  the  Creator.  But  the  fact  is, 
the  mind  of  man  is  prone  to  such  guesses  and  spec- 
ulations, and  this  is  one  of  the  particulars  in  which 
we  are  very  widely  distinguished  from  the  beasts. 

We  strive  to  penetrate  the  Divine  intentions. 

It  is  as  well  to  do  this  modestly — remembering 
the  vast  difference  between  the  Creator's  infinite 
intelligence  and  our  own  finite  minds.  But  because 
a  child  is  pretty  certain  to  reason  wrongly  and  in- 
conclusively concerning  the  actions  of  its  parents 
we  need  not  forbid  it  to  reason  at  all.  Nor,  on  the 
other  hand,  if  a  boy  should  conclude  that  he  could 
not  comprehend  the  reasons  which  controlled  the 
acts  of  his  father  would  he  be  warranted  in  assert- 
ing that  the  father  had  no  reasons  or  purpose  at  all. 

Undoubtedly  the  discussion  of  the  Divine  purpose 
is  apt  to  mislead  us,  and  is  often  futile;  and  we 
need  not  find  fault  with  some  philosophers  and  men 
of  science  if  they  are  as  irritable  at  the  mention  of 
"final  causes"  as  a  bull  at  the  exhibition  of  a  red 
rag.  They  assert  that  the  argument  of  design  is 
only  a  vicious  reasoning  in  a  circle ;  and  some  mod- 
ern men  of  science  profess  to  show  us  that  there  is 
no  firm  ground  at  all  for  the  ascription  of  purpose  to 
the  Creator,  if  there  was  a  Creator ;  that  the  eye,  for 
instance,  was  not  made  to  see  with,  because,  as  they 
assert,  it  came  about  by  a  course  of  slow  develop- 


THE   LIMITS  OF  SPECULATION.  77 

ment  of  optic  nerves  and  other  parts  out  of  the 
vesicular  structure  of  some  originally  non-seeing  an- 
imal. They  tell  us  that  the  first  crude  germ  of  vi- 
sion was  a  nerve  in  some  zoophite  which  chanced 
to  be  affected  by  or  was  susceptible  to  light  rays ; 
that  the  advantage  in  the  struggle  for  life  gained  by 
the  creature  possessing  even  the  dimmest  vision  was 
so  great  that  it  was  better  able  to  escape  destruction 
than  its  non-seeing  companions,  and  that  thus  the 
power  or  faculty  of  vision  was  preserved  with  its 
possessor,  and  in  some  unexplained  way  developed 
and  perfected  in  the  course  of  ages. 

Now,  if  you  will  think  a  moment  you  will  see 
that  this,  after  all,  is  only  an  account  of  how  these 
philosophers  suppose  the  eye  to  have  come  about; 
and  if  they  could  scientifically  establish  the  truth  of 
their  supposition  this  would  by  no  means  prove  that 
the  Creator  had  no  design  in  the  matter,  or  that,  in 
fact,  the  purpose  of  the  eye,  its  final  cause,  was  not 
to  see  with.  If  a  carpenter  should  explain  to  you  the 
various  processes  by  which  he  had  evolved  a  chair 
out  of  a  tree,  which  had  first  to  grow,  then  to  be 
cut  down,  then  to  be  sawed  into  lumber,  parts  of 
which  were  finally,  with  a  good  deal  more  detail, 
fashioned  into  a  chair,  all  this  would  not  bear  upon 
the  question  whether  or  no  the  "  final  cause  "  of  the 
chair  was  to  be  sat  on. 


78  .GOD-'ANP  THE   FUTURE   LIFE. 

God  need  not  have  made  a  nerve  susceptible  to 
light  rays.  He  need  not  have  made  this  susceptible 
nerve  capable,  in  the  course  of  ages,  of  becoming  the 
perfect  eye  with  which  we  see.  To  describe  to  us 
the  process  by  which  the  eye  was  formed  obviously 
does  not  tell  us  anything  whatever  of  the  purpose 
or  design  of  him  who  caused  its  formation. 

Mr.  Darwin,  who  never  goes  too  far  in  his  reason- 
ing, asks,  "  May  we  not  believe  that  [by  gradual  de- 
velopment] a  living  optical  instrument  might  be 
thus  formed,  as  superior  to  one  of  glass  as  the  works 
of  the  Creator  are  to  those  of  man  ?"  You  notice 
that  he  does  not  exclude  design,  but,  on  the  con- 
trary, plainly  includes  it.  He  argues  only  that  the 
designer,  God,  preferred  a  particular  way  of  form- 
ing the  eye ;  and  on  that  matter  you  may  without 
harm  take  the  knowledge  and  research  of  so  great 
and  careful  an  investigator  as  Darwin  for  your  guide. 

There  is,  however,  some  ground  for  the  scientific 
man's  hostility  to  the  argument  from  design.  It 
has  often  been  carried  to  extremes;  it  has  some- 
times barred  the  way  of  scientific  research ;  and  we 
ought  not  to  forget  that  there  is  a  certain  imperti- 
nence in  our  readiness  to  explain  the  meaning  and 
intentions  of  the  Creator.  That  the  eye  was  made 
to  enable  us  to  see  seems  to  us  clear  enough ;  that 
our  hands  are  marvellously  fitted  by  intricate  struct- 


THE  LIMITS  OF;  SPECULATION.  79 

ure  to  do  the  work,  to  which  "we  put  them  is  unde- 
niable. But  there  are  what  anatomists  and  botanists 
call  "  functionless  organs,"  which,  in  the  animals  and 
plants  which  possess  them,  have  no  apparent  uses, 
and  which  speak  to  us  rather  of  a  distant  past,  or 
perhaps  of  a  more  distant  future,  than  of  the  pres- 
ent. And  while  we  may  reasonably  strive  to  dis- 
cover, also,  the  purpose  of  their  present  occurrence, 
a  modest  distrust  of  our  own  limited  powers  should 
make  us  cautious  where  we  are  dealing  with  infinite 
wisdom  and  power. 

It  was  a  laughable  instance  of  misapprehension 
when  a  child  admired  the  wisdom  of  Providence  in 
causing  large  rivers  to  flow  past  great  cities — for 
we  all  see  that  the  cities  were  subsequent  to  the 
rivers,  and  man  only  took  advantage  of  what  he 
found  created  to  his  hand.  It  might  be  to  little 
more  purpose  for  you  to  argue  that  God  made  rivers 
to  facilitate  internal  commerce  and  communication 
between  nations.  It  is  enough  for  us  that  we  find 
them  useful  for  this  important  end.  To  recur  to 
the  case  of  water,  of  which  I  spoke  in  the  last 
chapter :  we  see  clearly  enough  that  on  the  fact  that 
water  expands  in  freezing,  contrary  to  a  very  gen- 
eral though  not  universal  law,  depends  to  a  large 
extent  the  habitableness  of  our  planet.  I  think  we 
may  reasonably  admire  the  wisdom  of  the  Creator 


80  GOD  AND  THE  FUTURE  LIFE. 

in  giving  this  somewhat  exceptional  law  to  water; 
and  we  may  even  suppose  that  he  took  this  way, 
out  of  a  number  which  he  might  have  used,  to  make 
the  earth  habitable  and  pleasant  to  such  creatures  as 
it  contains. 

But  if,  now,  a  plumber  should  come  in  and  assume 
that  water  had  been  caused  to  expand  in  freezing 
in  order  that  he  might  have  the  profit  of  mending 
bursted  water-pipes,  you  would  justly  regard  this 
as  a  very  silly  deduction. 

It  is  possible  and  probable  that  the  Creator  had 
not  one  but  many  purposes  in  view  in  any  one  of 
the  laws  he  established ;  that  of  these  purposes  some 
were  present,  others  remote;  some  evident,  others 
recondite ;  and  that  while  the  attempt  to  define  for 
ourselves  his  designs  in  every  phenomenon  we  ob- 
serve about  us  is  a  tempting  intellectual  exercise, 
it  must  be,  for  the  most  part,  sterile  of  results :  be- 
cause a  finite  mind  strives  in  vain  to  penetrate  the 
secrets  of  his  infinite  intelligence. 

When  we  come  to  ask  WHY,  wre  run  our  heads  at 
once  against  so  many  impenetrable  mysteries  that 
the  wisest  draw  back  with  awe,  and  wait  patiently 
for  the  clearer  insight  we  may  hope  for  in  another 
life,  where  we  shall  be  disencumbered  of  our  bodies 
— those  organs  which  we  may  there  discover  to  have 
been  to  us  more  of  a  hinderance  than  even  a  help 


THE   LIMITS   OF  SPECULATION.  81 

to  knowledge.  In.  these  matters  also,  as  Paul  finely 
says,  "  Here  we  see  as  in  a  glass  darkly,  but  there 
face  to  face" — here  we  see  dimly,  as  the  reflection 
in  a  mirror  of  an  object  lying  behind  us ;  but  there 
by  direct  vision. 

Here  we  see  more  and  more  of  the  wonderful  way 
in  which  things  go  on — but,  so  far,  we  have  not  got 
even  the  faintest  glimpse  of  how  things  began.  We 
discover  some  of  the  laws,  as  we  call  them,  in  obedi- 
ence to  which  the  universe  became  and  remains  an 
orderly  and  harmoniously  working  machine ;  but  we 
know  absolutely  nothing  of  WHY  these  laws  are  as 
they  are,  much  less  why  they  are  not  otherwise. 

These  limitations  of  our  knowledge,  which  yet  do 
not  exclude  us  from  knowing  that  there  is  an  infi- 
nite field  of  investigation  before  us,  are  justly  held 
to  give  us  a  promise  of  continued  existence — to  make 
a  life  beyond  the  grave  more  probable  than  that  we 
should  perish  with  our  bodies.  If  we  could  know 
all  here,  we  might  reasonably  apprehend  that  this 
life,  thus  filled  and  rounded,  was  all  that  remains  to 
us.  As  for  the  lower  animals,  which  fulfil  all  their 
functions  in  this  life,  no  other  is  necessary:  so  it 
might  be  with  us  higher  beings,  if  we  also,  in  this 
life,  could  consciously  fulfil  all  our  functions,  and 
complete  our  possibilities. 

6 


82  GOD  AND  THE   FUTURE   LIFE. 


IX. 

MORAL  AS  WELL  AS  PHYSICAL  LAWS. 

WE  speak  of  moral  as  well  as  physical  laws ;  but 
while  all  created  things  are  alike  and  peremptorily 
subject  to  those  general  rules  which  we  call  physi- 
cal laws,  man  is  the  only  creature  who  is  subject  to 
moral  laws.  The  beasts  have  neither  morality  nor 
immorality ;  they  simply  follow  their  impulses.  It 
would  be  as  absurd  to  talk  of  an  immoral  horse  or 
lion  as  of  an  immoral  oak  or  elm.  To  man  alone  is 
given  the  choice  between  good  and  evil.  We  speak 
sometimes,  to  be  sure,  of  a  thieving  cat,  or  dog,  or 
raven,  but  we  do  not  apply  the  term  in  the  same 
sense  as  to  a  man ;  nor  do  we  hold  an  animal  to  the 
same  responsibility. 

Moral  laws  appear  for  us  to  have  come  in  with 
the  creation  of  man.  The  tree  of  the  knowledge 
of  good  and  evil,  the  Bible  tells  us,  grew  in  Para- 
dise ;  it  appeared  there  simultaneously  with  the  first 
human  pair.  Whether  you  take  this  Bible  state- 
ment literally,  or  regard  it  as  a  picturesque  and 
poetical  statement,  it  is  nevertheless  true — just  as 


MORAL  AS  WELL  AS  PHYSICAL  LAWS.  83 

true  as  that  other  Bible  generalization,  that  "  in  the 
sweat  of  his  face  shall  man  eat  his  bread,"  or  as 
hundreds  of  equally  striking  and  deeply  significant 
truths  with  which  it  is  filled. 

You  consider  a  physical  or  natural  law  established 
when  all  the  phenomena  which  it  should  affect  are 
duly  affected  by  it,  so  far  as  our  experiments  can  de- 
velop this  fact.  We  hold  the  law  of  gravitation  to 
be  established,  for  instance,  because  research  and  ex- 
periment have  shown  that  the  smallest  stone  is  no 
no  more  nor  less  subject  to  it  than  the  largest  planet. 

But,  setting  aside  the  moral  law  as  revealed  and 
enforced  upon  us  in  the  Scriptures,  how  are  you  to 
determine  what  is  right  and  what  is  wrong?  Mur- 
der, for  instance,  the  first  crime,  the  first  offence 
against  the  moral  law  of  the  commission  of  which  we 
have  any  account — murder,  you  say,  is  undoubtedly 
wrong.  But  how  can  you  prove  this  ?  Consider 
for  a  moment.  Why  should  you  not  kill  a  person 
who  stands  in  the  way  of  the  object  you  have  at 
heart — of  your  success  in  some  plan  of  life,  your  ri- 
val in  love,  or  in  ambition,  or  in  business,  and  likely 
to  be  your  successful  rival  ?  A  single  life  stands  be- 
tween you  and  your  most  cherished  object  in  life — 
why  not  destroy  it?  why  not  kill  the  man — poison 
him  secretly,  let  us  say — and  thus  attain  your  object  ? 
Leave  out  of  view,  please,  the  dread  of  discovery, 


84  GOD  AND  THE  FUTURE  LIFE. 

and  of  disgrace  and  punishment ;  for  we  are  now  dis- 
cussing the  question  whether  there  ought  to  be  dis- 
grace and  punishment  at  all  for  murder.  Whether, 
instead  of  secretly  poisoning  your  rival,  you  should 
not,  if  you  are  strong  enough,  openly  knock  him  on 
the  head  ? 

Why  should  you  not  kill  him,  and  thus  insure 
success  ? 

Or,  to  put  the  question  on  a  broader  base,  why 
should  we  not  kill  the  maimed,  the  crippled,  the 
helpless,  and  the  criminal  classes?  A  pauper  or  a 
tramp  is  a  useless  creature — he  produces  nothing, 
and  subsists  idly  on  the  labors  and  earnings  of  oth- 
ers, who  are  the  poorer  for  his  continued  life.  The 
maimed,  the  crippled,  the  deaf  and  dumb,  the  blind, 
the  insane,  those  who  are  unable  to  earn  their  own 
subsistence,  and  are  a  charge  upon  their  friends  or 
on  society,  and  often  a  heavy  and  grievous  burden — 
why  should  we  not  kill  them  ?  The  criminal  class, 
the  depredators  on  society,  who  make  our  lives  un- 
easy and  rob  us  of  our  hardly-earned  savings :  why 
should  we  not  kill  them?  We  poison  dogs  which 
have  contracted  a  passion  for  the  blood  of  sheep. 
We  trap  foxes  and  weasels  which  invade  our  hen- 
roosts. But  the  burglar  or  pick -pocket  is  only  a 
more  noxious  creature  than  the  sheep-killing  dog; 
the  swindler  or  forger  is  only  a  more  able  and  more 


MORAL  AS  WELL  AS  PHYSICAL   LAWS.  85 

dangerous  weasel.  Why  do  we  build  prisons  and 
reformatories  for  these  people,  and  maintain  hospi- 
tals and  asylums  for  the  helpless  class  ? 

You  will,  perhaps,  say  that  such  humanity  is  nec- 
essary to  the  existence  of  society.  But  this  is  not 
certain ;  and  if  it  were,  why  should  you  care  about 
society?  If  you  are  strong,  why  should  you  trouble 
yourself  about  the  weak,  the  helpless,  or  suffer  your- 
self to  be  troubled  by  the  vicious  ?  A  child  is  born 
into  the  world  weakly  or  deformed ;  why  should  not 
the  parents  kill  it,  and  thus  save  themselves  from  a 
painful  and  costly  charge — a  burden  lasting  they  can- 
not tell  how  many  years,  and  entailing  very  great 
deprivations  and  discomfort  ?  An  aged  person  lies 
bedridden,  and  sure  to  die  after  a  while ;  why  not 
save  a  great  deal  of  trouble  and  annoyance  by  kill- 
ing him  at  once  ?  A  thousand  soldiers  lie  wounded 
on  the  field,  and  the  care  of  them  exposes  the  com- 
mander to  the  loss  of  the  campaign ;  he  cannot  pur- 
sue or  he  cannot  evade  the  enemy,  because  these 
helpless  men  cumber  his  movements.  Why  not  kill 
them?  Why  hazard  success,  fame,  glory,  perhaps 
the  cause  for  which  he  is  fighting,  by  stopping  to 
dress  their  wounds,  to  house  them  comfortably,  to 
care  for  their  recovery  ? 

Human  laws,  you  will  say,  forbid  such  barbarities. 
But  human  laws  are  only  the  enactments  of  a  tern- 


86  GOD  AND  THE  FUTURE  LIFE. 

porary  majority;  they  are  constantly  changing  and 
changed.  Why  should  they  not  be  entirely  made 
over  in  the  plain  interests  of  the  general  peace  and 
prosperity?  Consider  how  secure  you  would  feel 
if  all  the  criminal  classes,  great  and  small,  were 
hanged  up  out  of  the  way;  how  much  less  your 
taxes,  and  how  much  greater  your  prosperity  and 
that  of  society  at  large  would  be,  if  all  the  paupers 
and  other  helpless  people  were  quietly  smothered, 
and  we  could  sell  the  jails,  hospitals,  and  asylums, 
to  be  turned  into  summer  hotels  and  watering-places. 

Society  would  go  to  pieces,  you  repeat.  That  is 
by  no  means  certain ;  but  if  it  did,  what  need  you 
care  for  society?  You  have  a  strong  desire  for 
happiness;  is  it  not  rank  injustice  that  "society" 
should  impose  rules  which  at  every  step,  almost, 
interfere  with  your  pursuit  of  happiness?  Why 
should  you  suffer  such  injustice  ?  and  not  you  alone, 
but  all  those  members  of  society  who,  like  you,  are 
strong,  able,  shrewd,  energetic,  and,  so  being,  have 
the  keener  desire  for  those  things  which  seem  to 
you  and  them  to  constitute  good-fortune,  happiness  ? 

When  I  speak  to  you  of  poisoning,  of  infanticide, 
of  killing  off  the  paupers,  the  maimed,  blind,  and 
deaf  and  dumb,  of  hanging  up  the  whole  criminal 
class,  and  closing  asylums  and  reformatories,  I  shock 
you ;  but  let  us  follow  the  matter  a  little  further. 


MORAL  AS   WELL  AS  PHYSICAL   LAWS.  87 

A  man  and  woman  marry ;  they  have  children ;  the 
man  tires  of  his  wife,  who  has  lost  her  beauty  and 
freshness  to  him  in  caring  for  the  children  and  the 
household.  He  sees  other  women  who  please  him 
more ;  or  he  feels  that  but  for  these  family  burdens 
he  might  rapidly  acquire  a  fortune,  or  lead  an  easier 
or  a  more  varied  life,  or  even  make  a  great  career. 
Why  should  he  not  please  himself?  Or,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  woman  tires  of  her  humdrum  life 
of  unceasing  care ;  her  husband  neglects  or  no  lon- 
ger pleases  her ;  she  sees  another  man  who  appears 
to  her  a  more  agreeable  companion.  Why  should 
she  not  abandon  husband  and  children  and  please 
herself  ? 

We  are  coming  now,  observe,  to  a  less  unusual 
instance.  You  are  less  shocked,  but  only  because 
the  case  is  not  so  uncommon  in  your  newspaper 
reading,  where  a  husband  abandons  his  wife,  or  a 
wife  her  husband;  and  there  has  been  a  strong 
pressure,  for  many  years,  upon  law-making  bodies 
to  make  divorce  easier,  and  not  without  success  in 
many  of  our  States,  and  in  some  European  countries. 
That  the  two  sexes  should  consort  together  at  their 
pleasure,  and  without  such  bonds  and  restraints  as 
the  moral  law  imposes,  and  as  legal  regulations  in  al- 
most all  states  still  provide,  is  the  contention  of  a 
considerable  number  of  men  and  women  here  and 

"^ 

V*  w 


88  GOD  AND  THE  FUTURE   LIFE. 

in  Europe,  who  have  argued  for  their  view  in  books 
and  public  addresses.  Why  are  they  not  right  ?  If 
you  object  that  on  their  plan  society  would  go  to 
pieces,  they  reply  that  it  would  not ;  and  if  it  did, 
they  ask  why  are  they  bound  to  be  unhappy  as  in- 
dividuals in  order  to  benefit  society — an  aggregation 
of  people,  that  is  to  say,  whom  they  do  not  know, 
and  for  whom  they  do  not  care  ? 

Even  this  latter  instance,  however,  offends  you. 
It  is  not  usual  to  see  men  and  women  abandon  their 
family  ties;  and  disgust  hinders  you  from  consid- 
ering this  case  on  its  merits,  so  to  speak.  Let  me 
take  another,  still  commoner.  A  shrewd,  capable, 
and  determined  man  of  business — a  merchant,  let  us 
say  —  sees  that  certain  competitors  stand  between 
him  and  wealth.  He  does  not  kill  them,  because  it 
is  still  the  fashion  to  hang  people  for  murder ;  but 
he  ruins  them.  One  after  the  other  he  brings  them 
to  bankruptcy,  and  so  gathers  into  his  own  hands 
the  whole  commerce  which  had  engaged  them  and 
maintained  them.  Here,  at  last,  we  have  a  case 
which  human  laws  do  not  touch,  and  which  is  com- 
mon enough.  What  do  you  think  of  it  ? 

You  call  him  selfish  and  unscrupulous,  and  you 
detest  him.  But  why  should  you  ?  It  was  by  the 
use  of  superior  cunning  that  he  gained  the  object 
nearest  his  heart — great  wealth.  Why  should  he  not 


MORAL  AS  WELL  AS  PHYSICAL  LAWS.  89 

do  this?  It  was  necessary  to  his  happiness  to  be 
very  wealthy ;  or,  at  least,  that  was  his  belief.  "Why 
should  he  let  foolish  and  weak  scruples  stand  in  the 
way  of  his  desires  ?  He  did  not  know  the  men  he 
ruined;  why  should  he  regard  them?  "Live  and 
let  live!"  you  exclaim;  but  he  replies,  "All  baggage 
at  the  risk  of  the  owner ;"  and  why  is  he  not  right  ? 
Undoubtedly  his  brutal  selfishness  violates  the  moral 
law;  but  why  should  he  observe  the  moral  law? 
There  is  no  penalty  here,  in  this  life,  for  its  breach. 

Society,  you  say,  will  go  to  pieces  if  such  mere 
self-seeking  becomes  the  rule,  and  if,  to  alter  an  old 
rhyme,  "He  may  take  who  has  the  cunning,  and  he 
must  keep  who  can ;"  and  you  add  that  every  indi- 
vidual example  of  such  conduct  is  debasing  to  the 
young  and  the  morally  weak  who  see  it.  But  he 
replies,  "What  do  I  care  for  society?  I  want 
wealth,  and  the  honors  and  predominance  which 
much  money  gives.  I  care  nothing  about  society. 
'  Every  man  for  himself,  and  the  devil  take  the  hind- 
most.' Besides,"  he  adds,  "  it  is  all  twaddle  about  so- 
ciety going  to  pieces.  Society  can  be  kept  together 
by  soldiers  with  the  modern  arms  of  precision. 
When  I  see  society  attempting  to  go  to  pieces  I 
call  loudly  for  the  Seventh  Regiment,  and  I  notice 
that  society  settles  down  at  once." 

If  this  life  of  the  body  with  its  desires  and  neces- 


90  GOD  AND  THE   FUTURE   LIFE. 

sities  is  all  we  have  to  live,  the  question  of  morals  is 
certainly  one  open  to  every  man's  decision  on  his 
own  views  of  what  will  make  him  happiest ;  and  he 
is  entitled  to  judge  for  himself.  If  he  is  strong 
enough  he  may  destroy  or  subdue  all  the  weak  about 
him,  for  it  is  the  happiness  of  the  strong  man  to  ex- 
ercise his  strength  and  power.  If  he  is  ambitious 
enough  he  may,  to  secure  his  own  desires,  or  to 
wreak  his  own  revenges,  destroy  the  state  of  which 
he  is  a  part,  for  to  the  ambitious  man  his  own  aims 
are  more  precious  than  the  good  of  his  fellow-men. 
If  he  is  cunning  enough  he  may  ruin  all  his  compet- 
itors in  business,  and  thus  build  up  a  vast  fortune. 
If  there  is  no  future  life  for  us,  self-restraint,  self- 
denial,  are  mere  follies;  Hampdens  and  Washing- 
tons  are  visionaries  and  dreamers ;  Caesars  and  Na- 
poleons are  the  real  men. 

Those  who  deny  the  existence  of  God  and  a  future 
life  strive  in  vain  to  justify  the  restraints  on  the  pas- 
sions and  propensities  of  mankind  imposed  by  what 
we  call  moral  laws.  The  ablest  and  most  logical  of 
them  seek  refuge  in  the  assertion  that  we  are  to  sac- 
rifice our  inclinations  for  the  benefit  of  some  future 
society;  they  draw  for  us  pleasing  pictures  of  the 
perfection  and  happiness  at  which  the  human  race 
may  arrive  in  some  distant  period,  if  more  and  more 
of  us  can  only  be  persuaded  to  sacrifice  our  own 


MORAL  AS   WELL  AS  PHYSICAL   LAWS.  91 

comfort  and  happiness  in  order  that  our  remote  de- 
scendants five  or  six  thousand  years  hence  may  have 
easier  and  happier  lives. 

But  the  argument  of  such  a  vague,  distant,  and 
general  benefit  is  capable  of  attracting  only  those 
few  who  are  already,  naturally  or  by  training,  in- 
clined to  be  good.  It  has  no  force  upon  the  minds 
of  the  selfish  strong,  or  the  selfish  weak.  It  does 
not  control  the  strong  man's  will,  or  tempt  him  to 
hold  his  hand  against  the  weak.  Why  should  he  or 
what  does  he  care  for  future  and  distant  generations 
of  men  ?  He  has  strong  passions,  the  gratification 
of  which  is  necessary  to  his  happiness  here — and  he 
is  assured  that  there  is  no  life  for  him  beyond  this 
of  the  body.  This  is,  therefore,  his  only  opportunity 
for  enjoyment,  for  gratification,  for  happiness.  The 
sentiment  of  pity  may  stay  his  purpose,  but  he  will 
not  be  detained  from  working  his  will  upon  his  fel- 
low-creatures by  consideration  of  how  his  actions 
may  influence  the  condition  of  society  in  distant 
ages.  We  see  in  many  instances  that  such  a  strong 
man  is  not  even  greatly  restrained  by  the  thought  of 
his  own  immediate  and  closest  friends. 

As  to  the  weak — the  great  mass  who  have  little  or 
no  hope  of  wealth,  or  fame,  or  power — deprive  them 
of  the  future  life,  and  they  must  seek  their  consola- 
tion or  reward  here,  in  the  flesh-pots  of  Egypt — in 


92  GOD  AND  THE  FUTURE   LIFE. 

the  "  bread  and  shows  "  of  the  Roman  multitude ;  in 
amusements  and  distractions  of  a  merely  or  mainly 
animal  kind — in  the  selfish  search  after  bodily  com- 
fort and  ease. 

We  are  forced  to  include  the  future  life — the  life 
of  the  soul  beyond  the  grave — if  we  desire  to  justify 
to  ourselves  or  to  others  the  supreme  restraining  au- 
thority of  moral  laws,  on  which,  observe,  all  just  and 
benefic'ent  human  lawTs  are  founded.  "Thou  shalt 
not  kill,"  says  the  law  of  Moses ;  and  as  though  fore- 
seeing that  the  children  of  Israel,  long  corrupted  and 
debased  in  pagan  bondage,  needed  something  much 
more  forcible  and  impressive  than  a  mere  appeal  for 
social  order,  this  and  the  other  Commandments  were 
delivered  amid  the  thunders  of  Sinai,  and  as  the  im- 
perative commands  of  God.  "  Thou  shalt  not  kill," 
says  the  law  of  Moses,  and  thus  guards  the  weak 
against  the  strong,  and  enables  the  foundation  of 
a  human  society.  But  "Thou  shalt  not  call  thy 
brother  a  fool,"  says  Jesus,  recalling  our  attention 
to  the  higher  purpose  of  self-restraint — to  the  ne- 
cessity of  guarding  and  training  our  spiritual  part 
for  the  future  life. 

Observe  that  Jesus,  with  that  divine  and  search- 
ing wisdom  which  was  His  alone,  struck  at  the  vices 
which  corrupt  the  spirit — malice,  envy,  hypocrisy, 
anger,  hatred,  all  forms  of  selfishness.  "  Thou  shalt 


MORAL  AS  WELL   AS  PHYSICAL  LAWS.  93 

not  call  thy  brother  a  fool" — not  because  that  hurts 
him,  but  because  it  hurts  you;  because  it  gratifies 
and  fosters  somewhat  in  your  own  soul  debasing  to 
it,  and  unfitting  it  for  higher  things.  So,  envy  may 
not  affect  your  neighbor,  but  it  corrodes  your  own 
soul.  So,  hypocrisy,  it  has  been  said,  is  "  the  hom- 
age which  vice  pays  to  virtue;"  it  has  sometimes 
been  described  as  even  a  social  virtue ;  but  Jesus 
never  ceased  to  denounce  the  hypocrites — the  "  whited 
sepulchres,  fair  and  smooth  without,  but  full  of  rot- 
tenness within." 

"  It  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive,"  said 
He,  again ;  and  if  "  the  poor  we  have  always  with  us," 
as  undoubtedly  we  shall  have  until  society  is  Chris- 
tianized, it  is  that  our  own  hearts  may  be  softened, 
and  our  love  and  sympathy  kept  alive  by  helping 
them.  Always,  in  every  way,  He  appealed  to  the 
inner  man,  and  required  that  the  soul,  the  immortal 
part,  be  cleansed  and  kept  alive  to  all  good  and  high 
thoughts  and  things.  For  the  externals  he  cared 
so  little  that  his  life  seemed  scandalous  to  the 
"scribes  and  pharisees."  Bodily  comfort,  ease,  en- 
joyment he  made  little  of,  though  he  was  by  no 
means  an  ascetic.  But  as  He  came  to  deliver  to  us 
the  doctrine  of  a  future  and  eternal  life,  as  He  saw 
with  His  divine  eyes  clearly  the  relations  of  this  life 
to  the  other,  so  He  ever  insisted  on  those  things 


94:  GOD  AND  THE  FUTURE  LIFE. 

which  are  needed  to  prepare  our  spirits  for  that 
other  life  in  which  we  are  to  live  without  the  bonds, 
and  also  without  the  help,  of  the  body.  Therefore 
He  taught  self-restraint,  self-denial,  the  curbing  and 
rooting  out  of  evil  passions  and  desires,  the  denial 
to  the  body  of  the  gratifications  of  our  senses,  be- 
cause He  saw  that  thus  only  can  we  train  our 
spirits  for  the  higher  life  beyond  the  grave. 

Thus,  His  teaching,  though  some  found  it  "  hard," 
was  utterly  reasonable.  It  urged,  only  in  a  vastly 
more  important  field  and  aspect,  what  a  thoughtful 
father  impresses  upon  his  son  going  to  college,  or  to 
a  trade :  "  Use  this  opportunity  to  prepare  yourself 
for  the  real  life  which  is  to  come  to  you  hereafter 
— after  this  period  of  privation  and  exertion.  Deny 
yourself  now,  in  these  student  or  apprentice  years, 
that  you  may  hereafter  be  a  man  amongst  men." 

But,  leave  out  the  future  life  which  was  the  con- 
stant burden  of  His  speech  and  thoughts,  and  the 
social  theory  of  Jesus  is  only  foolishness — an  over- 
wrought sentimentalism  as  it  has  been  called  in  our 
days  by  men  who,  rejecting  the  future  life,  naturally 
and  logically  reject,  also,  the  admonitions  for  the 
conduct  of  our  present  and  bodily  lives  which  Jesus 
delivered. 

Reject  the  future  life  beyond  the  grave,  eliminate 
it  from  our  thoughts  and  beliefs,  and  what  we  call 


MORAL  AS  WELL  AS  PHYSICAL  LAWS.  95 

goodness  becomes  merely  a  "matter  of  choice" — a 
thing  to  be  determined  for  society  by  the  vote  of 
the  majority  for  the  time  being,  and  for  the  indi- 
vidual by  what  happens  to  be  most  to  his  taste. 

If  you  urge  that,  nevertheless,  "  goodness,"  self-sac- 
rifice, love  to  the  neighbor,  restraint  of  the  physical 
passions  and  appetites,  are  so  necessary  to  society 
that  without  these  that  could  not  long  endure,  this 
is  only  to  say  that,  in  the  Divine  Providence,  that 
which  is  best  for  the  individual  beyond  the  grave 
is  best  for  the  aggregate  we  call  society  here.  But 
consider  what  a  strange  confusion  in  the  Divine 
thought  it  would  argue — what  a  singular  break  in 
the  general  harmony  we  should  discover,  if,  for  in- 
stance, honesty  were  not  the  best  policy  in  this  life, 
but  only  in  the  next ! 


96  GOD  AND  THE  FUTURE  LIFE. 


X. 

THE  BIBLE  AS  A  BOOK. 

AMONG  books  it  is  from  the  Bible  that  we  draw 
the  most  of  our  ideas  of  God  and  the  future  life. 
It  is  a  great  collection  of  books,  some  very  ancient, 
some  less  so,  but  all  admitted  by  critics  to  be  of 
great  age,  and  among  the  oldest  writings  preserved 
to  our  days. 

I  should  like  you  to  read  the  Bible  not  merely  as 
a  book  of  devotion,  but  as  you  would  other  books  of 
the  highest  interest  and  importance.  Like  other  an- 
cient writings,  though  not  more  but  rather  less  so,  its 
style  in  some  of  the  books  will  seem  to  you  often  ' 
strange,  and  sometimes  dry.  But  I  notice  that  those 
who  have  most  carefully  and  even  critically  studied 
it  are  the  most  positive  in  their  praises  of  its  extraor- 
dinary literary  excellence. 

If  you  read  it  with  the  intelligent  curiosity  which 
it  deserves,  you  will  discover  that  it  has  astonishing 
merits  of  many  kinds — literary,  historical,  poetical; 
and  that  there  is  no  part  of  it  which  does  not  de- 
serve and  reward  a  careful  study,  aside  entirely  from 


THE  BIBLE   AS  A  BOOK.  97 

its  importance  as  a  guide  to  our  moral  or  spiritual 
lives.  This  has  been  the  opinion  of  the  greatest 
poets  and  the  most  deeply  cultivated  minds  in  all 
countries,  and  their  judgment  is  worthy  of  your  re- 
spect. No  thoughtful  person,  if  he  regards  only  the 
affairs  of  the  present  life,  can  even  glance  superfi- 
cially over  this  great  collection  without  a  feeling  of 
admiration  and  wonder ;  and  when  you  hear  a  per- 
son speak  slightingly  or  contemptuously  of  the  Bi- 
ble you  may  safely  set  him  down  as  an  ignoramus. 

To  speak  only  of  superficials,  nowhere  in  litera- 
ture do  we  find  such  biographies  as  are  in  the  Bible : 
memoirs  giving  such  vivid  traits  of  life ;  relating 
with  such  impartial  hand  the  evil  as  well  as  the 
good  which  appeared  in  the  man,  and  leaving  you 
with  such  a  conviction  of  the  accuracy  of  the  author, 
and  of  the  genuineness  of  the  character  portrayed. 
In  the  lives  of  Moses  and  Aaron,  of  Abraham,  Isaac, 
and  Jacob,  of  David  and  Solomon,  though  these  were 
heroes  and  great  men,  founders  and  rulers,  there  is 
no  attempt  in  the  Bible  narrative  to  deify  them,  or 
to  conceal  their  faults.  The  Bible  "whitewashes" 
nobody.  You  see  that  these  were  men  of  force, 
power,  sometimes  of  genius ;  but  along  with  their 
great  or  good  deeds  the  Scripture  story  gives  you 
their  weaknesses,  foibles,  faults,  sins,  and  presents  to 
you  men,  and  not  impossible  or  improbable  beings. 

7 


98  GOD   AND   THE   FUTURE   LIFE. 

There  is  nowhere  in  literature  such  an  admirable 
collection  of  biographies  as  we  find  in  the  Old  Tes- 
tament. 

The  poetry  of  the  Bible  has  instructed  and  de- 
lighted the  most  refined  and  -critical  minds  in  all 
ages,  and  particularly  in  modern  times  when  the 
critical  faculty  has  had  its  greatest  development. 
There  is  scarcely  a  great  poet  in  the  last  three  cen- 
turies, in  our  own  or  other  languages,  who  has  not 
taken  some  Scripture  event  or  some  suggestion  from 
its  pages,  as  the  basis  of  a  poem ;  and  you  need  to 
have  but  a  cursory  acquaintance  with  English  poetry 
to  know  that  if  you  could  eliminate  from  it  all  that 
is  founded  upon  or  drawn  from  the  Bible,  you  would 
rob  it  of  very  many  of  its  noblest  poems,  and  leave 
a  blank  which  nothing  that  remains  would  fill.  The 
Psalms,  which  touch  and  awaken  all  the  moods  and 
experiences  of  our  lives ;  the  Book  of  Job,  the  song 
of  Miriam,  the  song  of  Deborah,  many  pages  in  the 
Prophets,  not  to  speak  of  other  parts,  abound  in 
poetry  of  the  highest  order,  and  in  narratives  which 
touch  the  heart  and  stir  the  feelings  by  beauty  of 
language  and  elevation  of  thought,  and  by  their  ap- 
peal to  the  common  experience  of  mankind  in  mis- 
fortune, disappointment,  sorrow,  or  in  great  joy  and 
gladness. 

The  Bible  is  not  a  book  of  science;  but  any  of 


THE  BIBLE  AS  A  BOOK.  99 

you  who  have  a  taste  for  natural  history  will  find 
that  many  of  the  Bible  writers  were  admirably 
close  observers  and  skilful  recorders  of  natural  phe- 
nomena. 

In  history  no  book  in  all  our  libraries  offers  you 
so  large  and  instructive  a  view  of  the  rise,  the 
growth  and  prosperity,  the  glory,  and  then  the  de- 
cadence and  fall  of  nations,  as  the  Bible.  In  the 
earlier  books  of  the  Old  Testament  you  may  see 
how  Moses,  a  man  of  the  greatest  genius  the  world 
has  seen,  with  admirable  and  almost  impossible  pa- 
tience, gave  himself  to  the  making  of  a  nation  out 
of  a  horde  of  ignorant  and  degraded  f reedmen ;  with 
what  constant  and  irritating  obstacles  he  had  to  con- 
tend in  his  endeavor  to  make  men  out  of  a  people 
wrho  had  been  sunk  in  slavery ;  and  with  what  won- 
derful wisdom  and  zeal  he  persevered  in  their  train- 
ing during  forty  tedious  and  vexatious  years,  i  If 
you  read  with  sufficient  intelligence  you  will  marvel 
to  find  Moses,  in  that  age  of  the  world,  developing 
a  system  of  political  economy  to  which  the  minds 
of  many  thoughtful  men  even  now  turn  back  for 
instruction  and  hope ;  and  not  only  this,  but  to  find 
him  laying  down  minute  rules  for  the  daily  conduct 
of  life — rules  regarding  the  administration  of  justice, 
for  cleanliness  and  order,  food,  raiment,  and  drink, 
for  the  protection  of  the  poor,  of  prisoners  and 


100  GOD   AND  THE   FUTURE   LIFE. 

slaves,  for  the  conduct  of  men  towards  men,  and  to- 
wards women — a  mass  of  sanitary,  physiological,  and 
social  regulations,  very  many  of  which  we  should  be 
the  better,  in  our  modern  society,  for  re-adopting 
and  observing. 

If  you  have  given  any  thought  to  statesmanship, 
or  have  read  history  with  even  moderate  attention, 
the  Bible  story  of  Moses  will  present  him  to  you  as 
by  far  the  wisest  and  greatest  statesman  of  whom 
we  have  any  record ;  as  one  of  the  few  very  great 
men  our  race  has  known ;  and  the  greatest  of  them 
all,  because  his  wisdom  and  the  labors  of  his  long 
life  were  given  unselfishly  to  the  liberation  of  a 
degraded  slave  population,  and  their  elevation  in 
the  scale  of  manhood  and  civilization  to  the  rank  of 
a  nation  which  remained  compact,  prosperous,  and 
happy  so  long  as  it  adhered  to  the  laws  he  estab- 
lished. 

Solon  and  Lycurgus  were  famous  law-givers  among 
the  ancients ;  but  the  laws  of  Moses,  in  the  opinion 
of  the  ablest  thinkers  of  modern  days,  far  excel 
theirs  in  scope  and  merit,  and  especially  in  human- 
ity. Nowhere  in  the  histories  which  have  come 
down  to  us  do  we  find  the  ruler  of  an  ancient 
people  so  humane,*  so  careful  of  the  poor,  the  weak, 
and  defenceless ;  nowhere  are  there  such  simple  yet 
admirable  devices  for  the  maintenance  of  a  general 


THE  BIBLE  AS  A  BOOK.  101 

equality  of  condition  in  society.  No  law-giver  or  law- 
maker of  ancient  or  modern  days  has  shown  so  keen 
an  appreciation  of  the  importance  of  the  necessity 
of  securing  to  every  family  of  a  nation  a  share  in 
its  soil.  Nowhere  do  we  find  such  simple  and  yet 
effective  checks  placed  upon  selfishness  and  that 
greed  for  accumulation  which  in  our  own  days  has 
forced  itself  upon  the  attention  of  many  wise  states- 
men and  philosophers  as  a  grave  danger  to  society, 
No  student  of  political  economy  or  of  statesman- 
ship in  our  days  can  neglect  to  examine  with  care 
the  constitution  of  that  Jewish  confederation  of 
which  Moses  laid  the  corner-stone  in  the  wilderness, 
and  which  he  left  Joshua,  his  principal  general  or 
military  aid,  to  finally  establish  according  to  the 
regulations  previously  laid  down  by  himself. 

Nor  should  you  overlook  the  fact  that  Joshua,  a 
military  ruler,  who  led  his  people  to  conquest  in  a 
time  when  military  rulers  were  accustomed  to  misuse 
their  power  to  establish  a  despotic  and  personal  gov- 
ernment, patriotically  respected  the  constitution  of 
the  Jewish  commonwealth,  and,  like  our  own  Wash- 
ington, sought  only  the  welfare  of  his  people,  and 
not  his  own  aggrandizement — a  remarkable  and  noble 
example  of  self-denial  and  public  spirit  in  those  days 
which  has  had  few  imitators  since. 

If  you  turn  to  the  Book  of  Proverbs  you  discover 


102  GOD  AND  THE   FUTURE   LIFE. 

a  mass  of  shrewd  and  happy  generalizations  on  hu- 
man life  and  society,  which  show  the  closest  obser- 
vation of  character.  And  in  all  parts  of  the  Bible 
you  meet  with  statements  and  narratives  which, 
were  they  discovered  in  other  books,  or  now  first 
made  by  writers  of  our  own  day,  would  be  hailed 
as  marvels  of  genius  or  remarkable  insight. 

I  would  like  you  to  recognize  in  the  Bible  not 
merely  a  book  of  moral  precepts.  It  is  a  great  col- 
lection of  writings  filled  with  lessons  and  suggest- 
ions instructive  to  the  student  in  many  of  the  most 
important  branches  of  modern  investigation  and  in- 
quiry. There  is  scarcely  any  subject  to  which  you 
may  give  thought,  barring  only  the  exact  sciences, 
in  which  some  part  of  these  ancient  writings  will 
not  be  useful  and  important  to  you. 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  PAIN.  103 


XL 

THE  MYSTERY  OF  PAIN. 

IN  the  Old  Testament  the  affairs  of  the  present 
life  are  the  most  prominent.  In  the  New  Testa- 
ment, and  particularly  in  the  Gospels,  the  concerns 
of  this  life  seem  to  fade  away  before  our  eyes  into 
comparative  insignificance. 

In  the  Old  Testament  prosperity,  predominance, 
happiness  here  below,  are  held  out  as  the  rewards  of 
right  living  and  of  obedience  to  God,  and  the  sum- 
mit of  felicity  is  when  the  aged  grandsire  sees  his 
descendants  to  the  third  and  fourth  generation  play- 
ing about  his  knees ;  when  his  cattle  graze  on  a  thou- 
sand hills,  and  his  sons  and  daughters  are  powerful 
in  the  land :  "  Happy  is  the  man  that  hath  his  quiv- 
er full  of  them ;  they  shall  not  be  ashamed,  but  they 
shall  speak  with  the  enemies  in  the  gate." 

In  the  New  Testament  these  earthly  joys  and  re- 
wards become  dim  to  our  vision,  which  is  turned  by 
Jesus  with  gentle  persistence  toward  that  other,  spir- 
itual and  immortal,  life  of  which  He  never  ceased  to 
explain,  in  discourses  and  parables,  the  supreme  im- 
portance and  real  relations. 


104  GOD  AND  THE  FUTURE  LIFE. 

It  is  as  though  a  child  or  youth,  for  some  time 
drilled  in  geography,  should  one  day  begin  the  study 
of  astronomy.  As  he  considered  the  heavens,  with 
their  immensity  of  infinite  space,  their  numberless 
and  unnumbered  worlds  and  systems  of  worlds,  it 
would  dawn  upon  his  mind  that  this  planet  of  ours, 
which  had  seemed  to  him  hitherto  the  centre  and 
circumference  of  life,  is  but  an  atom  of  the  vast  uni- 
verse. Not  an  insignificant  or  an  unimportant  atom 
by  any  means ;  but  his  wider  outlook  would  show 
him  for  the  first  time  the  true  relation  of  things, 
and  that  this  habitation  of  ours,  wonderful,  various, 
and  beautiful  as  it  is,  is  not  all.  So  Jesus  "came 
not  to  destroy,  but  to  fulfil  the  law."  He  taught  us 
not  to  despise  but  only  to  properly  value  the  earthly 
life. 

In  the  New  Testament  we  are  "  as  those  who  seek 
a  country,"  pilgrims — temporary  sojourners,  that  is 
to  say — in  this  life,  and  looking  for  another  and  a 
better ;  using  this  present  time  to  prepare  ourselves 
for  that  higher  life  in  which  the  promise  is  of  peace ; 
rest,  that  is  to  say,  from  the  struggle  with  bodily 
passions  and  infirmities,  relief  from  pain,  from  sor- 
row, from  disappointment  and  injustice,  from  the 
mean  toil  involved  in  supporting  the  body,  and  in 
providing  for  it  what  it  cries  out  for  in  various  di- 
rections. Rest;  but  not  in  idleness,  for  that  is  no 


THE  MYSTERY   OF   PAIN.  105 

rest;  but  in  the  enjoyments  which  must  come,  as 
you  can  see,  to  a  life  relieved  from  sordid  necessi- 
ties and  more  sordid  struggles ;  from  the  uncertain- 
ties and  sorrows  which  oppress  us  because  of  our 
short  sight  and  inability  to  comprehend  the  real  pur- 
pose of  God  and  the  real  bearing  and  drift  of  events. 
"For  now  we  see  through  a  glass  darkly,"  Paul 
finely  says,  "  but  there  face  to  face,"  meaning  that 
here  we  see  only  as  one  dimly  perceives  the  reflec- 
tion in  a  mirror  of  objects  which  lie  behind  him — 
but  there  beyond  we  shall  see  with  the  direct  vision 
of  our  eyes. 

In  the  Old  Testament  the  state  predominates  over 
the  individual.  Moses  aimed  to  establish  a  nation 
— though  with  a  wisdom  before  which  that  of  the 
Caesars  and  Napoleon  is  dimmed,  and  which  was  far 
beyond  his  own  age  of  the  world,  he  showed  the 
most  minute  care  for  the  prosperity  and  happy  de- 
velopment of  the  individual,  not  less  than  for  the 
mere  security  of  society.  To  speak  in  the  political 
slang  of  our  day,  Moses  was  furthest  from  being  an 
Imperialist.  He  founded  a  truly  Democratic  Com- 
monwealth ;  and  you  may  find  the  earliest  traces  of 
what  we  now  call  local  self-government  and  decen- 
tralization of  power — the  opposite  of  Imperialism — 
in  the  form  of  government  he  elaborated. 

But  in  the  New  Testament  the  individual  becomes 


106  GOD  AND  THE  FUTURE  LIFE. 

of  the  first  importance.  "Render  unto  Caesar  the 
things  that  are  Caesar's,"  said  Jesus ;  not  as  though 
government  or  society  were  the  supreme  object,  but 
because  these  are  temporary  and  subsidiary  phenom- 
ena, incidents  which  we  are  not  to  allow  to  disturb 
our  personal  lives ;  therefore  He  added,  "  and  to  God 
the  things  that  are  God's."  And  He  rebuked  per- 
sonal ambition  and  desire  for  predominance  among 
His  disciples,  saying,  "  Whosoever  of  you  will  be  the 
chiefest,  shall  be  the  servant  to  all." 

In  the  New  Testament  Jesus  "brought  life  and 
immortality  to  light,"  and  made  plain  that  as  this 
life  is  but  a  training  school,  a  place  of  preparation 
for  the  other,  the  eternal  life,  so  we  are  to  use  it 
not  for  the  accumulation  of  the  things  valued  by 
the  body,  which  is  temporary  and  perishes ;  not  to 
gain  wealth,  or  honor,  or  predominance,  or  to  gratify 
our  passions  and  desires,  but  to  check  and  curb 
these,  and  to  impose  on  ourselves  that  course  which 
our  reason  must  tell  us  will  best  fit  us  to  enjoy  a 
life  outside  of  and  divested  from  the  body. 

But  to  do  this  requires  Faith,  as  Jesus  incessantly 
repeated.  We  must  believe  that  there  is  a  future 
and  spiritual  life,  because  we  cannot  in  the  scien- 
tific and  accurate  sense  know  it ;  and  we  must  hold 
this  faith  as  an  imperative  guide  and  light  of  our 
footsteps. 


THE  MYSTEKY  OF  PAIN.  107 

It  is  not  easy,  this  life  of  preparation,  as  He  said. 
We  are  fond  of  permanence ;  nothing  in  this  life 
is  so  disagreeable  to  us  as  to  realize  its  temporary 
nature.  We  live  in  tents  when  we  long  to  live  in 
everlasting  habitations  in  this  world.  To  live  con- 
tentedly a  life  of  self-denial,  an  overpowering  im- 
pression and  belief  in  the  future  life  is  absolutely 
necessary ;  for,  to  make  ourselves  fit  for  that  spirit- 
ual life,  you  can  easily  see,  is  to  hold  the  good  of 
this  life  cheap,  and  to  remember  always  that  all  that 
belongs  to  the  body,  all  that  is  meant  by  success,  all 
that  we  call  ambition,  the  desire  to  excel,  to  rule,  to 
make  ourselves  more  fortunate,  more  happy,  more 
comfortable  than  others,  has  no  relation  to  the  future 
life.  We  are  to  do  our  duties:  to  go  whither  duty 
to  our  fellow-men  leads  us,  leaving  results  to  God. 

Hence  that  deep  saying  of  Jesus  to  the  rich  man 
who  asked  him,  "  Good  master,  what  shall  I  do  that 
I  may  inherit  eternal  life  ?"  All  the  Commandments 
he  had  observed  from  his  youth.  "  Then  Jesus  be- 
holding him,  loved  him,  and  said  unto  him,  <  One 
thing  thou  lackest ;  go  thy  way,  sell  whatever  thou 
hast,  give  to  the  poor,  and  thou  shalt  have  treasure 
in  heaven ;  and  come  take  up  the  cross  and  follow 
me.' 5:  But  the  poor  rich  man  "was  sad  at  that  say- 
ing and  went  away  grieved,  for  he  had  great  pos- 
sessions;" and. lie  could  not  bear  to  divest  himself 


108  GOD  AND  THE   FUTURE   LIFE. 

of  the  predominance  and  the  bodily  prosperity  and 
respect  these  secured  to  him. 

Are  we,  then,  bound  to  observe  a  vow  of  poverty  ? 
To  live  the  true  life  here  must  we  be  ascetics  ?  and 
were  the  old  barefooted  Dominicans  the  only  candi- 
dates for  eternal  life  ? 

It  is  not  so  written :  but  that  we  are  not  to  use 
our  lives  for  self -seeking ;  that  we  are  not  to  labor 
for  personal  success,  but  for  the  service  of  our  fel- 
low-men; that  we  are  to  accept  and  use  rightly, 
with  moderation  and  self-denial,  that  return  for  our 
toil  and  skill  which  shall  come  to  us  withoiit  our 
eager  seeking.  "  The  shoe  to  whom  it  fits  "  is  a  cyn- 
ical saying,  by  which  selfish  and  unscrupulous  men 
have  endeavored  to  justify  their  seizure  of  power  and 
wealth ;  but  in  the  order  of  society  the  shoe  will 
go  to  him  it  fits,  without  his  seeking;  and  while  you 
may  \vear  it  with  honor — but  not  without  care  and 
anxiety  too,  if  it  comes  to  you — you  are  not  to  seek 
after  it,  to  scheme  for  it,  to  grab  it.  The  cares  of 
this  world  are  not  to  absorb  us,  or  draw  our  atten- 
tion from  the  view  of  the  other  life. 

Surely,  if  there  is  another  life,  this  must  be  the 
true  theory  of  the  present. 

Hence,  too,  that  other  deep  saying  of  Jesus: 
"Martha,  Martha,  thou  art  careful  and  troubled 
about  many  things;  but  one  thing  is  needful,  and 


THE   MYSTERY  OF  PAIN.  109 

Mary  hath  chosen  that  good  part,  which  shall  not  be 
taken  away  from  her." 

Now  observe,  once  more,  that  the  conduct  im- 
posed on  us  by  Jesus  is  necessary  not  merely  to  fit 
us  for  the  life  beyond  the  body ;  it  is  also  that 
course  by  which  we  may  best  serve  our  fellow-men 
and  society  here.  It  may  not  make  us,  as  individ- 
uals, the  most  successful,  the  most  eminent,  the  most 
powerful.  It  may  lead  the  man  through  many  sor- 
rows and  disappointments.  It  is  certain  to  impose 
on  him  irksome  restraints.  But,  however  humble 
or  however  exalted  he  may  be,  living  this  Christian 
life  will  put  him  in  harmony  with  those  laws  on 
which  society  is  founded,  and  will  make  his  life 
beneficent  to  others. 

Thus  Jesus  gives  us,  in  His  teachings  and  in  His 
life — in  that  theory  of  life  which  He  urged  upon 
mankind — the  needed  key  to  the  mystery  of  our 
creation.  He  solves  for  us  this  secret.  Given  the 
continued  existence  of  the  individual  human  soul 
beyond  the  body  and  beyond  the  grave,  and  all 
mysteries  are  made  clear,  and  all  creation  becomes 
harmonious,  which  otherwise  was  but  "  sweet  bells 
jangled."  On  the  one  hand  we  see  a  justification 
for  those  social  laws  which  impose  restraints  on  the 
individual  for  the  security  and  benefit  of  the  aggre- 
gate—laws which  otherwise  have  no  permanence  or 


110  GOD   AND  THE  FUTURE   LIFE. 

sound  base,  but  are  exposed  to  constant  attack  from 
individual  or  combined  selfishness  or  desire.  On  the 
other,  we  may  perceive  the  Divine  purpose,  the  lov- 
ing wisdom  of  a  loving  Father  in  the  least  toward 
accidents  of  our  individual  lives,  and  see  that  to 
have  an  intelligent  purpose  which,  leaving  out  the 
future  life,  would  become  but  the  strangest  of  con- 
fusions in  a  world  otherwise,  and,  but  for  our  own 
living  in  it,  in  every  particular  singularly  reasonable, 
lawful,  and  harmonious. 

For,  if  you  will  consider  the  Creation,  you  will 
find  there  is  but  one  disturbing  element  in  it — Man. 
He  alone,  by  his  will,  modifies  the  course  of  nat- 
ure. He  alone,  of  created  things,  is  capable  of  dis- 
turbing— even  though  but  to  a  limited  degree — the 
order  of  nature.  His  voice  alone  breaks  the  great 
silence. 

Mill,  in  one  of  the  saddest  books  ever  written  by 
a  great  philosopher — his  "Three  Essays  on  Relig- 
ion"— sets  down  in  that  lucid  style  of  which  he  was 
master  the  grievances  of  our  bodily  lives,  and  rea- 
sons that  God  cannot  be  a  being  of  infinite  good- 
ness, and  at  the  same  time  of  infinite  power,  else 
he  would  not  have  permitted  pain  and  grief,  which 
make  up,  as  Mill  felt,  and  as  all  men  and  women 
are  forced  to  feel,  so  great  a  part  of  our  lives. 
There  must  have  been  two  Gods — one  a  good,  the 


THE   MYSTERY  OF   PAIN.  Ill 

other  an  evil  spirit,  with  co-equal  powers,  he  thinks, 
to  account  for  these  phenomena. 

Undoubtedly,  if  there  is  no  future  life,  Mill  was 
right,  and  there  are  either  two  Gods  or  none.  It  is 
a  reasonable  conclusion;  and  Mill's  argument  only 
shows  how  incoherent  and  absurd  a  phenomenon,  in 
an  otherwise  well-regulated  universe,  is  the  life  of 
man,  on  any  other  theory  than  that  which  continues 
his  life  beyond  the  grave. 

We  do  not  comprehend  the  ways  of  God — but  how 
should  we  ?  "We  cannot  see  with  His  eyes ;  we  are 
incapable  of  appreciating  even  very  many  of  the  mi- 
nor phenomena  of  the  life  about  us ;  and  the  mere 
thought  of  eternity,  of  time  without  end,  of  space 
without  bounds,  and  of  wisdom  without  limit,  which 
must  be  His  who  sees  the  end  from  the  beginning — 
the  mere  thought  of  these  things  eludes  the  grasp  of 
our  minds,  and  we  cannot  make  them  ours. 

Is  this  strange  or  unreasonable  ?  Have  I  not,  in 
like  manner,  seen  some  of  you,  when  you  were  small 
children,  sitting  in  a  corner  gloomily  reasoning  with 
yourselves  over  the  strange  and  incomprehensible 
perversity,  the  needless  and  despotic  cruelty,  the 
unreasonable  hatefulness  of  your  parents  in  deny- 
ing you  some  pleasure,  or  punishing  you  with  what 
seemed  to  you  cruel  severity  for  some  misconduct? 
Have  I  not  seen  your  eyes  flash,  and  known  that 


112  GOD   AND   THE   FUTUBE   LIFE. 

your  little  hearts  burned  with  fierce  indignation,  at 
what  you  believed  to  be  irritating  oppression,  by  your 
parents,  of  your  smaller  brothers  and  sisters  ?  Your 
slightly  developed  intelligence  could  not  be  made  to 
appreciate  the  reasons  which  moved  your  parents, 
nor  the  good  they  sought  to  bring  to  you  when  they 
imposed  self-denial  or  insisted  on  obedience.  But  as 
you  emerged  into  the  broader  experience  and  larger 
life  of  grown  youth  you  saw  and  acknowledged, 
often  with  wonder,  and  always  with  gratitude,  the 
wisdom,  the  prudent  foresight,  the  loving  care  of 
your  dear  mother ;  and  no  quality  of  hers  now,  when 
you  see  things  "face  to  face,"  so  wins  your  love  and 
grateful  devotion  as  the  memory  of  the  wise,  firm 
hand  which,  always  in  love,  but  often  in  sorrow  and 
suffering  to  herself,  insisted,  restrained,  forbade,  de- 
nied, or  punished.  How  often  has  she  felt  in  her 
innermost  heart,  as  she  dealt  with  you,  the  force  of 
that  plaintive  cry  of  Jesus,  "  Oh  ye  of  little  faith !" 

Nor  does  any  wise  mother  fail  to  learn,  out  of  her 
experience  with  little  children,  how  vain  are  all  her 
laws  and  her  loving  care,  to  give  them  the  true  de- 
velopment of  men  and  women.  After  all  her  ad- 
monitions she  sees  that  experience  is  their  needed 
teacher,  and  that  when  it  has  once  burned  its  fingers 
that  does  more  to  keep  a  child  away  from  the  fire 
than  the  most  persistent  care  and  commands  of  the 


THE   MYSTERY  OF  PAIN.  113 

nurse.  The  boy  who  is  obliged  to  make  his  own 
sled  may  not  have  as  pretty  a  sled  as  his  fellow,  but 
he  is,  as  we  say,  "more  of  a  boy" — he  is  an  abler 
boy  than  the  other  who  went  to  the  shop  and  bought 
one  with  his  father's  money.  He  is  an  abler  boy 
than  he  would  have  been  had  his  father,  the  car- 
penter, made  the  sled  for  him. 

Pain,  grief,  toil,  disappointment  of  our  wishes  and 
hopes  in  childhood,  you  plainly  see,  were  necessary 
to  your  manly  and  womanly  development  and  fit- 
ness for  a  broader  life.  The  boy  who  is  "coddled" 
by  his  parents  becomes  what  you  call  a  "  Miss  Nan- 
cy," and  grows  into  a  selfish,  cowardly,  and  useless 
man.  Now,  if  we  are  to  have  a  still  higher  and 
broader  life  beyond  the  grave,  is  it  not  reasonable  to 
believe  that  all  we  suffer  here  may  be  and  should  be 
in  like  manner  but  a  means  toward  our  development 
for  this  higher  life  ?  Do  not  pain,  and  grief,  and 
disappointed  hopes  become  to  our  minds  reasonable 
parts  of  an  education  for  that  life — and  very  impor- 
tant parts  ?  May  we  not  hold  that  these  phenomena 
do  not  disturb  but  rather  are  needed  to  complete  the 
general  harmony  ? 

If  this  life  were  all  that  remains  for  us,  then,  in- 
deed, we  might  justly  complain.  But,  in  that  case, 
complaint  would  be  so  futile  and  useless  that  we 
should  cease  to  reason ;  for  you  must  see  that,  leav- 

8  * 


114  GOD  AND  THE   FUTUKE   LIFE. 

ing  out  the  consideration  of  a  future  life,  there  can 
be  no  philosophy  so  sterile  as  that  of  Mill,  specula- 
ting about  two  Gods  of  coequal  powers  and  opposite 
wills.  If  this  life  is  all  for  us,  what  matter  whether 
there  are  two  or  two  thousand  Gods?  We  cannot 
scale  Olympus — let  us  "  eat,  drink,  and  be  merry,  for 
to-morrow  we  die  " — or,  to  put  the  same  thought  in 
modern  commercial  language,  "  every  man  for  him- 
self, and  the  devil  take  the  hindmost." 


THE   LIMIT  OF  AUTHORITY.  115 


XII. 

THE   LIMIT  OF  AUTHORITY. 

WHEN  you  read  a  book  two  questions  arise  in 
your  mind  concerning  the  statements  it  contains : 
First,  are  they  true  ?  Second,  who  makes  them  ? 

If  it  is  a  book  of  science  you  are  reading,  and  the 
statements  concern  the  inquiry  into  natural  phenom- 
ena, you  may  do  wisely  to  look  first  to  the  author's 
name  and  reputation.  If,  for  instance,  you  were 
reading  a  treatise  on  the  higher  mathematics,  or  per- 
haps one  on  the  intricate  mechanics  of  stair-build- 
ing, you  would  do  well  to  trouble  yourself  only  with 
an  author  of  the  highest  repute,  because  that  would 
be  your  guarantee  against  deception  or  false  infor- 
mation. To  the  student  of  the  exact  sciences  the 
report  of  experts  alone  is  valuable ;  and  if  I,  who 
am  not  an  astronomer,  wish  to  know  what  is  known 
in  that  science,  I  prefer  to  consult  some  acknowl- 
edged authority  who  will  tell  me  what  is  certainly 
ascertained,  so  far  as  I  can  comprehend  it,  and  who 
will  not,  at  any  rate,  mix  up  his  own  or  other  peo- 
ple's opinions  or  speculations  with  the  established 
facts  of  the  science. 


116  GOD  AND  THE  FUTURE   LIFE. 

But,  on  the  side  of  morals,  it  is  very  possible  to 
overstate  the  importance  of  authority.  In  morals 
there  are  no  laymen.  Each  one  of  us  has  a  right 
to  be  an  inquirer.  You  need  not  say,  "  Such  is  the 
truth,"  in  a  question  of  morals,  "  because  so  John 
Wesley,  or  Jonathan  Edwards,  or  the  Pope,  or  Brig- 
ham  Young,  or  Confucius,  or  Mahomet  proclaimed 
or  affirmed  it."  In  morals  you  are  dealing  with 
your  own  conduct,  and  your  own  soul  or  spiritual 
part ;  and  you  cannot  take  shelter  behind  some  one 
else,  because  it  is  your  own  conduct,  founded  on 
your  own  convictions  or  faith,  which  alone  can  form 
your  character — which  is  your  soul. 

In  the  teachings  of  Jesus  you  find  instruction, 
and  in  His  life  the  model  for  your  own  life ;  and 
these  are  all-sufficient.  You  may  accept  them  as 
final,  and  upon  them  build  your  own  faith  and  life. 
In  the  Gospels  they  are  placed  before  us  in  a  man- 
ner intelligible  to  the  least  educated,  the  most  hum- 
ble or  savage,  as  the  sufficient  guide  for  our  conduct 
here,  and  our  training  through  that  conduct,  for  the 
future  life.  Millions  have,  fortunately,  taken  these, 
without  further  inquiry,  as  the  absolute  and  final 
truth  in  morals,  the  sufficient  guide  for  their  lives. 

You  may  do  the  same.  But,  also,  you  may  in- 
quire, even  in  this  case.  If  you  have  doubts,  as  so 
many  have  in  these  days,  you  are  bound  to  inquire ; 


THE   LIMIT  OF  AUTHORITY.  117 

for  you  may  confidently  say,  "If  there  is  a  God,  and 
if  He  has  given  us  the  needed  instructions  for  that 
course  in  this  life  which  shall  lead  us  safely  to  the 
higher  life,  He  cannot  be  offended  if  I  use  the  fac- 
ulties He  gave  me  to  inquire  into  this  truth." 

You  may  go  further,  and  say,  "To  insist  upon 
mere  authority  in  this  case  may  weaken  the  weight 
of  the  truth  itself;  for  if  it  is  true,  it  is  so  not 
merely  because  it  there  stands  written,  but  further, 
because  it  must  stand  in  harmony  with  the  works 
of  God  in  the  creation  so  far  as  I  can  comprehend 
these." 

Thus,  to  assert  that  the  Golden  Rule  is  the  true 
rule  of  living  because  Jesus  delivered  it  may  not 
be  conclusive  upon  some  minds.  But  if  you  show 
that,  also,  it  is  the  true  rule ;  that  according  to 
wrhich  men  and  society  here  can  most  beneficently 
act  upon  each  other,  and  which,  by  its  practice,  will 
actually  best  fit  a  soul  for  life  beyond  the  grave, 
then  you  produce  conviction  upon  a  reasoning  but 
doubting  being. 

You  may  safely  accept  as  final,  then,  and  without 
further  inquiry,  if  you  like,  the  words  and  the  life 
of  Jesus ;  but  also  you  may  reason  and  inquire,  as 
we  have  been  doing  in  all  that  goes  before  in  this 
book.  Such  inquiry  will  show  you  that  the  Golden 
Eule  is  the  true  rule  of  life  and  action,  because  it 


118  GOD  AND  THE  FUTURE   LIFE. 

applies  perfectly  to  every  phase  and  condition  of 
life  and  society — a  fact  which  is  established  by  the 
general  experience  of  mankind,  the  life  of  Jesus 
being  itself  the  most  conspicuous  and  instructive 
application  and  example  we  know  of. 

You  will  read,  perhaps,  in  current  literature  about 
what  are  called  "other  Bibles" — the  sacred  books 
of  other  nations,  as  those  of  the  Chinese,  Hindoos, 
and  Mohammedans.  It  is  a  fashion,  just  now,  to 
magnify  these  writings ;  to  place  them  on  an  equal- 
ity with  the  Bible,  and  even  to  call  some  of  them 
superior  to  it.  You  need  not  trouble  your  minds 
with  these  trivialities.  Whatever  is  good,  just,  and 
wise  must,  in  the  nature  of  things,  be  so,  without 
regard  to  authority.  For  us  Jesus  was  the  author 
of  those  final  sayings  which  make  plain  to  us  the 
mystery  and  the  purpose  of  our  lives.  He  not  only 
taught,  but  lived ;  and  His  life  and  His  words  make 
our  complete  and  sufficient  guide.  If,  anywhere 
else,  good  has  been  taught  and  lived — amen ;  let  us 
be  glad.  It  would  be  strange,  indeed,  if  nowhere 
else  except  in  Europe,  and  later  in  America,  man- 
kind had  been  able  to  get  true  views  of  life.  You 
will  notice  that  no  one  pretends  to  have  discovered 
in  those  "other  Bibles"  any  higher  or  more  forci- 
ble teaching  of  these  all-important  truths  than  we 
possess.  If  we  have  the  sum  and  substance  of  all, 


THE  LIMIT  OF  AUTHORITY.  119 

that  is  enough  for  us.  There  can  be  no  parties  in 
morals. 

If,  indeed,  anywhere,  some  one  should  discover  a 
new  law  of  life,  higher  and  better  than  that  left  us 
by  Jesus,  that  would  be  a  matter  of  supreme  interest 
and  infinite  importance  to  all  of  us.  Thus,  to  a 
pious  Chinese  who  had  accepted,  as  final,  the  saying 
of  Confucius :  "  Recompense  evil  with  justice,  and 
recompense  kindness  with  kindness,"  the  Golden 
Rule  and  the  whole  tenor  of  the  life  and  teachings 
of  Jesus  might  come  with  a  quite  startling  effect, 
as  a  new  revelation  of  a  much  higher  life  than 
that  which,  until  then,  he  had  accepted  as  the  best 
truth.  For  there  is  a  very  wide  difference  between 
doing  justice  to  your  enemy  and  loving  him  as 
yourself. 

A  new  code  of  morals,  a  new  rule  of  life,  leading 
us  to  higher  things,  both  in  this  life  and  the  next, 
than  the  Golden  Rule — this  would  certainly  demand 
all  our  attention.  But  this  you  see  nowhere  pre- 
tended to. 

Jesus  "brought  life  and  immortality  to  light." 
His  message  connected  this  life  with  the  other,  and 
thus  established  for  us  the  real  proportions  of  this 
life,  and  gave  us  the  true  perspective.  If  this  life  is 
all  we  have  to  live,  it  becomes  the  most  important 
phenomenon  with  which  we  have  to  deal ;  and  each 


120  GOD   AND  THE   FUTUKE   LIFE. 

of  us  Las  the  right  to  use  it  as  seems  to  him,  on  the 
whole,  best  for  his  personal  gratification.  In  that 
case  to  talk  to  us  about  self-restraint  for  the  benefit 
of  others  is  rank  folly,  and  very  many,  indeed,  in 
our  logical  days  so  regard  it.  But  if  this  life  is  but 
an  insignificant  fraction  of  the  sum  of  our  existence, 
that  changes  the  whole  problem.  It  was  this  which, 
as  you  will  find  in  the  Gospels,  Jesus  so  constantly 
and  strenuously  insisted  on.  The  more  closely  you 
study  His  life  and  His  words,  the  more  clearly  you 
will  see  that  both  were  based  on  the  theory  that  our 
souls  are  immortal.  "My  kingdom  is  not  of  this 
world,"  He  said.  The  future  life  is  the  foundation 
and  justification  of  all  He  urged  concerning  our 
conduct  of  this  life. 

The  burden  of  His  message  to  mankind  is,  that 
wrong-doing  injures  the  perpetrator  infinitely  more 
than  the  sufferer,  because  it  debases  his  spiritual  nat- 
ure, though  it  may  advance  his  merely  worldly  pros- 
perity ;  that  we  are  not  to  strive  after  the  "  things 
of  this  world,"  fame,  honor,  riches,  or  even  comfort, 
because,  as  they  are  difficult  of  attainment,  so  they 
are  apt  to  absorb  our  attention  exclusively,  and  thus 
draw  it  away  from  the  eternal  things  which,  if  they 
are  real,  as  He  taught,  are  of  course  of  far  greater 
moment ;  that  self-sacrifice  in  the  cause  of  duty,  and 
for  the  welfare  and  benefit  of  others,  is  the  true 


THE   LIMIT   OF  AUTHORITY.  121 

service  of  God  and  the  true  life  for  ourselves,  be- 
cause in  this  way  only  can  we  build  up  our  charac- 
ters, and  train  and  perfect  our  spiritual  parts.  He 
taught  that  we  are  watchfully  to  curb  and  keep  un- 
der control  the  body,  with  its  passions  and  desires 
which  come  to  us  with  our  merely  animal  parts ;  and 
to  regard  as  the  all-important  element  in  ourselves 
that  nobler  and  permanent  part  which  is  destined  to 
a  life  beyond  the  grave,  and  which  we  call  the  soul. 
He  was  not  an  ascetic,  and  He  nowhere  advises  or 
suggests  that  we  shall  make  ourselves  unhappy  or 
uncomfortable  for  the  mere  sake  of  unhappiness  or 
sterile  self-denial.  It  is  not  hatred  of  the  sunlight 
He  teaches,  but  sharing  it  with  our  fellows.  But 
He  urges  constantly,  and  reasonably  if  there  is  for 
us  a  future  life,  that  the  true  life  here  consists,  not 
in  satisfaction,  but  in  restraint ;  not  i'n  gratification, 
but  in  self-denial  for  the  happiness  of  others ;  not  in 
the  selfish  pursuit  of  our  own  objects,  but  in  devo- 
tion to  our  neighbors — our  fellow-men. 

What  I  wish  you  clearly  to  apprehend  is,  that  this 
is  all  utterly  reasonable,  practical,  and  clearly  wise, 
supposing  there  is  for  us  a  future  life.  Moreover, 
it  is  all  in  strict  harmony  with  whatever  we  know 
of  the  constitution  of  the  universe,  of  human  nat- 
ure, and  human  society.  If  we  are  capable  of  con- 
tinued existence  outside  of  our  bodies  and  beyond 


122  GOD  AND  THE   FUTUKE   LIFE. 

the  grave,  then  undoubtedly  we  cannot  do  better 
than  to  pursue  such  a  course  of  conduct  here  as  will 
maintain  a  spiritual  life  apart  from  or  independent 
of  the  body  which  perishes;  and  to  regard,  as  of 
minop  consequence,  those  things  which,  clearly,  we 
cannot  take  with  us  into  another  life.  Hence  Jesus 
reasonably  insisted  on  subordination  of  the  body  to 
the  spirit ;  on  the  sacrifice  of  ease,  pleasure,  bodily 
comfort,  ambition,  power,  wealth,  and  of  all  merely 
bodily  pleasures  and  gratifications,  to  the  dictates  of 
duty ;  and  for  this  life  so  pursued  He  held  out  the 
reward  of  an  immortal  life  beyond  the  grave,  a  life 
to  be  lived  without  the  burdens  and  disabilities  of 
the  body,  and  therefore,  of  course,  a  broader,  freer, 
less  oppressed,  and  more  enjoyable  life,  in  every 
sense  except  the  merely  animal. 

It  is  a  great  reward,  as  I  hope  you  will  see,  and 
one  eminently  worth  all  the  effort  required  to  se- 
cure it. 

The  sailor  labors  patiently  for  months  and  years 
in  the  most  toilsome,  anxious,  and  hazardous  of  pro- 
fessions, looking  cheerfully  forward  to  the  reward 
of  a  few  days  of  leisure,  freedom,  and  enjoyment  on 
shore  after  the  close  of  his  voyage.  But  to  us  all 
is  held  out  the  prospect,  after  "life's  fitful  fever," 
not  of  a  brief  period,  but  of  an  eternity  of  liberty, 
in  a  boundless  immensity  of  space  filled  with  the 


THE  LIMIT  OF  AUTHORITY.  123 

wonderful  works  of  God,  for  us  to  view  and  inves- 
tigate with  faculties  enlarged  and  freed  from  our 
present  bonds. 

As  the  theory  of  existence  thus  propounded  by 
Jesus  is  everywhere  absolutely  reasonable,  and  not 
inconsistent  with  what  we  know  here  of  life,  so  in 
the  like  spirit  He  everywhere  insists  that  God  is 
our  Father.  Not  our  king,  our  despot,  our  tyrant, 
our  unreasonable  commander,  but "  Our  Father  which 
is  in  Heaven." 

Jesus  does  not  present  us  God  as  a  being  who, 
having  brought  us  into  existence,  thereupon  turned 
his  back  upon  us,  and  left  us  as  foundlings  on  a 
strange  door-step ;  but  as  a  Father  who  cares  for  us, 
watches  over  us,  to  whom  we  may  confidently  ap- 
peal in  our  needs.  He  does  not  "  coddle  "  us,  or  do 
for  us  that  which  we  should  do  for  ourselves ;  even 
a  wise  earthly  father  know^s  that  his  children  need 
to  be  strengthened  and  developed  by  hardships  and 
sufferings,  and  will  be  the  better  and  stronger  men 
and  women  if,  in  their  youth,  they  have  been  forced, 
even  at  the  cost  of  many  disagreeables,  to  be  self- 
dependent. 

God  is  our  Father — so  Jesus  taught;  and  as  in 
your  childhood  your  parents,  if  they  were  wise, 
valued  the  right  direction  of  your  efforts  more  than 
mere  success  in  achievement,  so,  doubtless,  our  Fa- 


124:  GOD  AND  THE  FUTURE  LIFE. 

ther  in  Heaven  regards  us  poor  children  of  a  larger 
growth  with  a  judgment  different  from  that  of  men. 
We  are  to  do  what  is  right  and  leave  the  result  to 
God. 

You  will  see,  I  hope,  that  the  social  theory  of 
Jesus  is  thus  perfect  at  all  points.  It  fits  every 
phase  of  life.  Its  general  observance  would  form, 
without  further  effort  or  regulations,  a  true  and  per- 
fect society  or  nation.  But  it  has  reference  mainly 
and  primarily,  as  I  have  also  tried  to  show  you,  to 
the  individual.  It  is  the  individual  spirit  that  is  to 
be  formed  and  trained  for  the  future  life  ;  and  there 
are  no  circumstances,  no  social  surroundings  so  un- 
toward that  this  preparation  of  the  individual  may 
not  go  on.  It  is  the  individual  soul,  living  solitary 
in  its  strange  bodily  casement,  which  appeals  to  its 
Father  in  Heaven  for  help,  for  strength,  for  conso- 
lation. 

Hence,  in  this  life  which  He  prescribed,  and  there 
only,  men  find  serenity  of  soul,  fortitude  to  meet 
the  mishaps  and  failures  of  life :  because  they  leave 
the  end  to  God,  in  the  belief  that,  while  it  is  theirs 
to  do  their  duty,,  the  result  lies  with  Him. 

That  is  what  Jesus  meant  by  faith.  He  nowhere 
pretends  that  the  future  life  is  susceptible  of  dem- 
onstration. Everywhere  he  insists  on  faith,  and  re- 
peats again  and  again,  with  unceasing  iteration,  that 


/THE  LIMIT  OF  AUTHORITY.  125 

without  faith  there  is  no  possibility  of  a  true  life. 
There  may  be  those,  fortunate,  prosperous,  powerful, 
whose  efforts  seem  sufficient  to  themselves,  and  who 
do  not  need  this  dependence  on  God  as  a  Father. 
But  ask  the  poor,  the  wretched,  the  neglected  or  suf- 
fering, the  unfortunate,  the  disappointed,  the  weary. 
And  who  is  not,  at  some  time,  among  these  ? 


126  GOD  AND  THE  FUTURE  LIFE. 


XIII. 

MIRACLES. 

THAT  Jesus  was  a  very  extraordinary  character  is 
admitted  even  by  intelligent  men  who  choose  to  re- 
ject the  authority  of  His  teaching  and  His  theory 
of  life.  That  the  Gospel  narratives,  which  preserve 
for  us  the  only  account  we  have  of  His  life,  char- 
acter, and  ministrations  are  very  remarkable  literary 
productions,  is  freely  granted  by  the  ablest  critics 
who  examine  them  from  the  merely  literary  and 
historical  stand-point. 

Independently,  therefore,  of  their  supreme  impor- 
tance and  authority  as  the  guide  to  correct  living, 
these  Gospels  deserve  your  attention,  your  careful 
and  intelligent  study,  as  the  biographical  records  of 
the  most  extraordinary  personage  of  whom  history 
makes  mention.  If  it  is  a  necessary  part  of  intel- 
lectual training  to  familiarize  ourselves  with  the 
lives  of  those  who  have  greatly  affected  the  course 
of  events  or  the  development  of  mankind,  you  cer- 
tainly cannot  afford,  as  an  intelligent  being,  to  give 
an  inattentive  or  perfunctory  study  to  the  biography 


MIRACLES.  127 

of  one  who,  born  among  a  rude,  bigoted,  and  subject 
people,  of  the  humblest  parentage,  associating  all 
his  life  with  the  illiterate  and  poor — the  common 
people ;  taking  not  the  least  part  in  the  government, 
either  sacerdotal  or  political,  of  His  nation ;  having 
no  party  in  the  state  or  in  the  church;  neither  seek- 
ing nor  making  friends  or  supporters  among  the 
powerful  or  wealthy ;  and  put  to  death  on  a  criminal 
charge  long  before  He  had  reached  middle  life,  yet 
by  His  life,  His  doctrines,  and  His  death  more  pro- 
foundly and  permanently  affected  human  thought 
and  human  society  than  all  the  conquerors  and  phi- 
losophers who  ever  lived. 

You  will  find  the  Gospel  records  remarkable  for 
a  moderation,  decorum,  and  simplicity  of  style  which 
have  justly  won  the  admiration  of  the  most  eminent 
critics.  The  Gospel  narrative,  regarded  as  mere  "  lit- 
erature," is,  by  the  consent  of  the  ablest  students  of 
many  centuries,  a  very  notable  and  extraordinary 
production.  The  writers  record  the  wisest  and  deep- 
est sayings  of  Jesus  without  comment ;  they  tell  of 
surprising  miracles  without  boasting  or  pretence ; 
they  relate  for  us  what  Jesus  said  and  did,  in  the 
simplest  language,  without  art  or  apparent  skill,  of- 
tenest  as  men  who  did  not  themselves  comprehend 
the  full  meaning  and  significance  of  their  report. 

What  they  omit  to  tell  us  adds  much  to  the  lit- 


128  GOD  AND  THE  FUTURE   LIFE. 

erary  merit,  and  very  greatly  to  the  character  and 
credibility,  of  their  report. 

Of  the  early  life  of  Jesus,  for  instance,  they  have 
very  little  to  say.  Minute  details  of  His  life  as  a 
child  and  as  a  youth  would  be  of  the  deepest  inter- 
est to  us ;  they  would  gratify  a  curiosity  which  all 
feel  who  have  considered  His  life  at  all.  But  they 
would  be  of  no  real  value  to  us ;  they  could  not  help 
to  impress  upon  our  minds  the  supreme  importance 
of  His  message,  or  of  His  theory  of  life  and  society. 
The  Gospel  writers  tell  us  therefore  only  that  He 
was  born  in  obscure  and  humble  life,  that  He  was 
in  childhood  taken  inta  Egypt  for  safety ;  that  in 
early  youth  He  sat  in  the  Temple  and,  listening  to 
the  disputes  of  the  learned  doctors,  puzzled  them  by 
His  uncommon  intelligence  and  clearness  of  spiritual 
insight ;  that  He  was  subject  to  His  parents ;  that 
the  incidents  of  His  early  life  were  treasured  in  His 
poor  mother's  heart — and  that  is  all,  until  He  went 
to  be  baptized  by  John,  was  later  alone  in  the  wil- 
derness, and  thereafter,  a  man  grown  and,  as  it  is 
supposed,  thirty  years  of  age,  began  at  once  His 
brief  period  of  public  ministration. 

It  is  impossible  to  doubt  that  the  Gospel  writers 
thought  Jesus  a  very  extraordinary  personage.  Sure- 
ly it  is  the  more  remarkable  that  they  are  so  reticent 
concerning  the  details  of  His  early  life.  They  had 


MIRACLES.  129 

not  known  Jesus  in  His  childhood,  and  their  plan 
and  aim  appear  to  have  been  to  relate  in  detail  only 
or  mainly  that  of  which  they  were  eye-witnesses. 
To  the  critical  reader  this  self-restraint  marks  their 
narrative  as  accurate  and  credible ;  to  all  it  makes 
the  more  impressive  the  story  of  His  public  life. 

It  is  the  most  deeply  touching  story  in  all  history. 
But  it  is  nowhere  overwrought ;  the  reporters  never 
transcend  the  bounds  of  the  most  rigid  decorum; 
they  make  no  attempt  to  impress  themselves  upon 
us.  Everywhere,  too,  the  life  and  the  doctrine  are 
harmonious — even  where  we  see  plainly  that  the  life 
was  a  stumbling-block,  and  the  message  a  mystery  to 
those  who  followed  Him  with  wondering  eyes  and 
differing  hopes  and  expectations.  For  you  cannot 
read  attentively  the  Gospel  narrative  without  seeing 
that  the  disciples  and  followers  of  Jesus  were  often- 
est  blind  to  His  real  aims  and  purposes,  and  incapa- 
ble, at  the  time,  of  taking  in  the  spirit  of  the  mes- 
sage they  heard.  How  wonderful,  therefore,  that, 
failing  to  comprehend  Him,  as  they  did,  they  should 
yet  have  left  us  so  clear  a  report  of  Him  ! 

There  were  not  wanting,  somewhat  later,  writers 
ready  enough  to  gratify  the  pious  curiosity  and  the 
love  of  the  marvellous  of  people  who,  hearing  of 
Jesus  through  the  Gospels,  and  ignorantly  fasci- 
nated not  by  the  spirit  of  His  message,  which  they 

9 


130  GOD  AND  THE   FUTURE   LIFE. 

but  dimly  apprehended,  but  by  the  wonder  of  His 
miraculous  works,  burned  to  hear  more.  There  is 
a  curious  body  of  literature,  known  as  the  Apocry- 
phal Gospels,  in  which  you  may  read  minute  details 
of  the  childhood  and  youth  of  Jesus ;  and  nothing, 
perhaps,  more  strikingly  sets  out  the  marvellous  re- 
straint, or  makes  clearer  the  simple  and  wonderful 
truthfulness  of  the  Gospel  narratives,  than  the  read- 
ing of  these  apocryphal  and  invented  tales.  There 
Jesus  figures  as  a  mere  wonder-worker  from  His 
earliest  childhood.  Miracles  crowd  in,  to  the  shut- 
ting out  completely  of  the  real  meaning  and  pur- 
pose of  His  life. 

It  is  instructive  to  compare  these  miracles  with 
those  recorded  in  the  Gospels.  You  will  see  that 
in  these  apocryphal  narratives  they  are  mere  foolish 
magic,  where  they  are  not  contrary  to  the  whole  char- 
acter of  Jesus.  A  leprous  girl  is  cured  by  drinking 
the  water  in  which  the  infant  Jesus  had  been  washed. 
A  young  man  whom  sorcerers  had  turned  into  a  mule 
is  restored  by  placing  the  infant  Jesus  on  his  back. 
Mary  needing  to  wash  the  child's  coat,  He  causes  a 
well  of  water  to  spring  out  of  the  ground  near  a  syc- 
amore-tree. The  boy  Jesus  plays  with  other  boys ; 
they  make  clay  figures  of  animals,  and  Jesus  causes 
these  figures  to  walk,  fly,  eat,  and  drink.  Joseph  be- 
ing an  unskilful  carpenter,  Jesus  helps  him  out  by 


MIRACLES.  131 

miraculously  widening  the  gates  and  giving  proper 
shape  to  the  buckets,  sieves,  and  boxes  Joseph  makes. 
The  boy  Jesus  amuses  himself  by  making  fish-pools, 
and  strikes  dead,  by  His  will,  another  boy  who  had 
broken  the  pools  and  let  the  water  run  out.  He  dis- 
obeys His  school  -  master,  and  when  the  master  is 
about  to  whip  Him  Jesus  causes  his  hand  to  wither. 
He  causes  a  boy  to  die  who  carelessly  runs  against 
Him  in  the  street,  and  curses  with  blindness  those 
who  complain  of  Him. 

You  see  how  trivial  are  these  mere  "wonders," 
and,  above  all,  how  false  and  repugnant  to  the  char- 
acter of  Jesus,  as  it  is  developed  in  the  Gospels. 
You  notice,  also,  the  contrast  between  these  stories 
of  magic  and  the  miracles  related  by  the  Evangelists. 

Still,  there  are  miracles  recorded  in  the  Gospels, 
you  say. 

So  there  are.     Let  us  consider  them  : 

In  the  first  place,  you  will  notice  that  these  mira- 
cles had  never  for  their  object  the  mere  exhibition 
of  remarkable  or  supernatural  powers  to  astonish  or 
terrify  the  beholders.  They  had  not  for  their  ob- 
ject either  the  gratification  of  any  passion,  in  Jesus, 
of  anger,  or  revenge,  or  ambition. 

Further,  no  one  thought  so  little  of  these  miracles 
as  Jesus  himself.  He  did  them  as  one  to  whom  the 
power  was  natural,  and  no  more  surprising  than  the 


132  GOD   AND  THE   FUTURE   LIFE. 

capability  of  a  Frenchman  to  speak  French.  Often- 
est  He  commanded  the  subject  of  a  miraculous  cure 
to  "tell  no  man/'  but  go  to  the  Temple,  give  thanks 
for  relief,  and  make  the  prescribed  offerings.  "When 
the  Pharisees  asked  him  to  perform  some  wonder 
he  refused,  saying,  "An  evil  and  adulterous  gener- 
ation seeketh  after  a  sign."  When  the  nobleman 
whose  son  was  sick  at  Capernaum  came  and  besought 
Him  to  come  down  and  heal  the  lad  who  lay  at  the 
point  of  death,  Jesus  at  first  refused,  saying,  "  Ex- 
cept ye  see  signs  and  wonders  ye  will  not  believe ;" 
but  when  further  entreated,  and  seeing  that  here 
was  no  vulgar  wonder-seeker,  he  dismissed  the  man, 
saying,  "  Go  thy  way,  thy  son  liveth ;"  "  and  the 
man  believed  the  word  that  Jesus  had  spoken  to 
him,  and  went  his  way,"  because  he  was  not  as  the 
Pharisees,  a  mere  seeker  after  signs  and  wonders. 

Of  miracles  done  for  the  mere  sake  of  exciting 
surprise  or  striking  terror  into  beholders  there  is 
not  a  trace  in  the  Gospels.  He  "  went  about  doing 
good,"  as  one  to  whom  the  desire  and  the  power 
were  equally  natural  and  proper.  But  it  is  remark- 
able, and  singularly  in  harmony  with  His  teachings 
of  the  subordination  of  this  life  to  the  next,  that  He 
made  so  extremely  moderate  a  use  of  this  power. 
Were  there  no  future  life,  but  were  this  life  all  we 
have  to  live,  and  therefore  its  comforts  and  satis- 


MIRACLES.  133 

factions  of  the  extremes!  and  final  importance  to 
us,  in  that  case  Jesus,  possessed  of  such  powers,  and 
of  so  merciful  and  pitying  a  spirit,  should  have  re- 
lieved not  one,  but  all  the  lame,  blind,  and  suffering. 

Still,  you  repeat,  it  is  reported  that  He  did  mira- 
cles. How  can  we,  trained  in  scientific  methods, 
believe  in  a  miracle  ? 

Well,  then,  what  is  a  miracle?  It  is  an  occur- 
rence out  of  the  ordinary  course  of  nature,  so  far 
as  we  have  ascertained  this  ordinary  course.  It  is 
contrary  to  what  we  call  natural  laws.  Now,  before 
we  declare  a  phenomenon  absolutely  contrary  to 
natural  laws  we  ought  to  be  sure  that  we  know  all 
the  laws  of  nature.  How  can  we  say  this — we  who 
have,  with  all  our  science,  made  but  the  faintest  im- 
pression upon  the  sum  of  knowledge ;  and  who  see 
at  every  advance  which  science  makes,  not  less,  but 
more  remaining  unknown  to  us  ?  Many  things  which 
are  now  common  facts  of  our  daily  lives  would  have 
seemed  "miraculous"  a  few  centuries  ago.  The 
poor  Marquis  of  Worcester,  it  is  said,  was  put  into 
a  mad -house  because  he  foretold,  even  dimly,  the 
possibility  of  railroads  and  steamships. 

And  do  not  forget  that  we  have  explained  noth- 
ing when  we  speak  of  "natural  laws."  We  have 
only  classified  a  phenomenon  when  we  have  referred 
it  to  its  "natural  laws."  We  call  it  a  natural  law 


134  GOD  AND  THE   FUTURE   LIFE. 

that  water  seeks  its  level ;  that  the  magnet  attracts 
iron  and  steel.  We  define  electricity  to  be  a  "sub- 
tile fluid/'  and  have  gone  some  way  in  discovering 
its  methods  of  action,  which  we  call  its  laws.  But 
we  really  know  nothing  of  these  and  other  mys- 
teries, except  the  mere  mechanics  of  their  appear- 
ance. We  know  not  how  or  why  the  magnet  at- 
tracts iron,  or  why  the  needle  points  toward  the 
north.  Rightly,  and  not  superficially  regarded,  the 
mystery  of  nature  is  not  less  but  only  much  more 
a  mystery,  the  more  closely  we  observe  and  the 
more  deeply  we  penetrate  what  we  call  the  laws 
according  to  which  physical  phenomena  occur. 

"  Thou  wilt  have  no  mystery  or  mysticism,"  says 
Carlyle,  "  wilt  walk  through  thy  world  by  the  rush- 
light of  what  thou  callest  truth,  and  even  by  the 
hand-lamp  of  what  I  call  Attorney  logic,  and  '  ex- 
plain '  all  and  '  account  for '  all,  or  believe  nothing 
of  it.  Doth  not  thy  cow  calve?  Doth  not  thy 
bull  gender  ?  Thou  thyself,  wert  not  thou  born  ? 
wilt  thou  not  die  ?  Explain  me  all  this." 

Jesus  "  did  many  wonders  and  miracles,"  and  He 
made  as  little  of  them  as  God  does  of  the  daily 
miracle  of  a  man's  life,  or  of  the  constantly  recur- 
ring miracle  of  the  sun's  rising.  And  He  nowhere 
required  or  suggested  that  we  should  think  more 
of  them. 


MIRACLES.  135 

For  what  were  all  his  miracles,  or  all  other  won- 
ders, compared  with  the  miracle  of  His  own  life 
and  teachings  ?  Surely  this  is  the  real  miracle,  the 
event  most  wonderful,  and  least  to  be  accounted  for 
— that  He,  so  born,  into  such  a  society,  at  that  age 
of  the  world,  should  have  taught  and  lived  as  He 
did.  To  take  that  for  granted  as  in  the  natural 
course,  and  to  winder  at,  or  object  to,  or  attend  to 
only  those  acts  of  His  life  which  we  call  miracles, 
and  which  He  clearly  regarded  as  trivial :  surely  this 
is  only  to  fling  away  the  greater  in  order  to  stum- 
ble over  the  less.  It  is  to  seize  the  shell  and  throw 
away  the  kernel  of  the  nut. 

What  you  have  to  do  is  not  to  trouble  yourself 
about  the  possibility  of  miracles — for  who  can  assure 
you  that,  some  day,  what  we  call  miraculous  deeds 
may  not  be  as  common  as  blackberries  ?  You  have 
to  ascertain  what  bearing,  if  any,  they  have  upon  the 
question  of  your  conduct  of  life,  or  upon  the  ques- 
tion of  the  value  of  the  theory  of  life  propounded 
by  Jesus.  You  are  here,  according  to  that  theory, 
to  prepare  and  train  your  spiritual  part  for  a  future 
existence  beyond  the  grave,  and  without  the  body. 
Now,  what  has  a  miracle  in  it  that  it  can  help  you 
toward  this  supremely  important  end  ?  If  anything, 
then  it  is  important  that  you  should  ascertain  all 
about  it.  If  not,  then  it  is  at  least  immaterial.  If 


136  GOD  AND  THE  FUTURE  LIFE. 

that  which  Jesus  taught,  and  which  He  exempli- 
fied in  His  life,  is  evidently  untrue,  or  if  it  is  im- 
probable as  being  out  of  harmony  with  the  gen- 
eral creation  or  plainly  unsuited  to  life — then  un- 
doubtedly His  miracles  do  not  justify  or  lend  force 
to  His  doctrines.  If  His  teaching  is  true,  then  the 
miracles  add  nothing  to  it  for  us ;  though  undoubt- 
edly they  attracted  attention  to  His  doctrine  from 
the  beholders. 

Jesus  restored  a  blind  man  to  sight,  and  we  call 
that  a  miracle,  and  wonder  at  it.  But  look  about 
you  and  see  if  all  our  lives  are  not  surrounded  by 
even  greater  wonders.  You  bury  a  seed — a  cherry- 
stone ;  if  it  grows  at  all,  surely  that  is  a  miracle, 
for  you  cannot  in  any  way  explain  it  or  account 
for  it.  If  it  grows  into  a  cherry-tree,  is  not  that 
still  more  a  miracle  ?  Certainly  you  do  not  account 
for  it,  in  any  real  sense  of  explaining  a  phenome- 
non, by  saying  that  it  is  the  result  of  a  natural 
law.  That  is  only  a  subterfuge.  You  would  call 
it  a  miracle,  perhaps,  if  the  cherry-stone  produced 
an  oak-tree ;  but  is  it  not  more  wonderful,  stranger, 
less  easily  to  be  explained,  less  credible  a  priori, 
that  a  cherry-stone  should,  with  absolute  certainty, 
produce  a  cherry-tree,  and  never  by  chance  an  oak 
or  an  elm  ? 

The  words  and  the  life  of  Jesus  are,  so  far  as  we 


MIRACLES.  137 

can  see,  final.  His  theory  of  human  life,  of  the  ca- 
reer, so  to  speak,  open  to  the  human  soul,  is  at  one 
with  all  we  know  of  natural  laws,  of  the  phenomena 
of  the  universe,  and  of  society.  None  of  us  can  im- 
agine a  higher  or  further  reaching  rule  of  conduct 
than  the  command  to  "  love  your  neighbor  as  your- 
self," or  a  clearer  and  nobler  commentary  on  this  rule 
than  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  The  old  laws  of 
the  Jews  and  of  the  heathen  were  such  that,  as  has 
often  been  remarked,  really  good  men  and  women 
lived  above  them.  They  were  better  than  their  laws. 
But  who  of  us  lives  above  or  beyond  this  newer  law 
of  Jesus?  The  so-called  Christian  world  would  be 
changed  as  by  magic  to-day  if  the  greater  part  of  it 
even  strove  to  live  according  to  this  last  "  new  com- 
mandment." 

Tinder  the  old  law  men  were  better  than  the  law. 
Under  the  new  dispensation  men  are  not  so  good  as 
this  "new  commandment,"  yet  they  are  far  better 
than  men  ever  were  before.  It  is,  perhaps,  strange 
to  you,  as  you  survey  the  Christian  world,  that  it  is 
not  better;  that  selfishness  is  so  greatly  the  rule; 
that  men  strive  and  scramble  for  wealth  and  honors 
and  predominance  as  they  do ;  that  the  Fifth  Avenue 
and  the  Five  Points  lie  so  near  together,  and  that 
the  earnings  of  the  poor  are  so  small,  while  the  su- 
perfluities of  the  rich  are  so  boundless. 


138  GOD  AND  THE   FUTURE   LIFE. 

Well,  the  Christian  world  is  not  better,  because 
it  is  not  Christian.  But  all  history  shows  that  it 
easily  might  be  very  much  worse;  and  it  is  not 
worse,  only  because  it  has  so  large  a  leaven  of 
Christianity. 


NATURE   OF  THE  FUTUKE   LIFE.  139 


XIV. 

NATURE  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE. 

READING  the  Gospel  story  of  Jesus  you  find  that 
while  He  insisted  constantly  on  the  fact  of  a  future 
life  beyond  the  grave,  on  its  intimate  connection 
with  this  life,  and  on  the  supreme  importance  of 
that  relation,  and  made  this  the  great  and  overshad- 
owing element  of  His  teaching,  the  basis  of  His 
theory  of  the  present  life,  yet  he  nowhere  revealed 
to  us  in  detail  the  features  of  that  future  state  of 
existence.  He  said  very  little  about  them,  and  that 
only  incidentally.  To  a  sophistical  query  put  to 
Him  by  certain  Sadducees  He  replied  that  "In 
Heaven  there  is  neither  marrying  nor  giving  in 
marriage."  To  the  penitent  thief  on  the  cross  He 
promised,  "  This  night  shalt  thou  be  with  me  in 
Paradise !"  Only  everywhere  He  insists  on  the 
fatherly  superintendence  of  God  over  our  lives,  if 
we  are  willing  to  submit  to  such  care. 

From  His  oft-repeated  instructions  and  admoni- 
tions concerning  the  conduct  of  the  present  life, 
however,  we  may  by  inference  gather  at  least  some 


140  GOD   AND   THE   FUTURE   LIFE. 

leading  traits  of  the  other ;  just  as,  if  an  experienced 
traveller  should  advise  you  as  to  your  necessary  and 
judicious  preparations  for  a  journey  in  a  distant,  and 
to  you  unknown  country,  you  would  be  able,  from 
his  counsel,  to  arrive  at  some  general  conclusions  as 
to  the  characteristics  of  the  country  you  proposed  to 
visit. 

Thus,  when  we  find  Jesus  on  all  occasions  making 
light  of  bodily  gratifications  and  pleasures,  and  re- 
garding as  of  no  real  value,  but  rather  as  serious 
hinderances,  the  possession  of  wealth,  honor,  personal 
predominance,  luxury,  bodily  ease,  and  the  desire  or 
ambition  for  these,  we  may  reasonably  conclude  that 
such  things  have  no  place  in  the  future  life. 

Beyond  this,  it  seems  probable  that  the  conditions 
of  that  life  are  inconceivable  by  us  in  our  present 
state,  because,  with  our  limited  bodily  senses,  it  is 
impossible  for  us  to  imagine  anything  fundament- 
ally different  from  those  objects  or  outside  of  those 
laws  which  surround  us  on  this  planet,  and  for  the 
apprehension  of  which  our  physical  senses  are  fitted. 
We  cannot  conceive  of  a  new  color  not  contained 
in  the  spectrum  of  our  sun;  though  it  would  be 
very  rash  in  us  to  assert  that  some  other  of  the 
myriads  of  suns  in  the  infinite  universe  does  not 
give  out  to  its  planets  a  color  unknown  to  us,  or 
that  the  organs  of  vision  of  some  animals  do  not 


NATURE  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE.  141 

reveal  to  them  colors  which  the  human  eye  and 
brain  cannot  discern.  Our  minds  cannot  conceive 
of  an  animal  constructed  on  a  plan  essentially  dif- 
ferent from  that  used  by  the  Creator  on  our  earth ; 
and  this  plan  is  now  known  to  students  to  be  sim- 
ple, and  resting  on  one  or  a  very  few  general  ideas. 
We  know  there  are  sounds  inaudible  to  our  ears. 
It  is  believed  by  some  physicists  to  be  demonstrable 
that  our  planetary  system  did  not  arrange  itself  by 
virtue  solely  of  laws  now  in  action,  but  that  if  we 
could  trace  back  its  history  to  an  early  period  we 
should  come  to  a  time  when  some  other  and  differ- 
ent laws  were  in  action.  But  our  reason  cannot 
grasp  the  nature  of  such  laws.  We  are  unable  to 
conceive,  for  instance,  of  a  law  which  could  have 
occupied  the  place  of  the  law  of  gravitation,  but 
should  have  acted  in  a  different  way. 

We  may,  however,  take  hold  of  the  problem  from 
another  side.  Let  us  suppose  that  we  are  to  find 
prevailing  in  the  future  life  the  same  general  laws 
which  obtain  here  around  us.  Though  not  certain, 
this  is  at  least  supposable — and  we  know  of  none 
other.  Consider,  then,  that  all  our  necessities  and 
sufferings,  as  well  as  our  blessings  and  joys  in  this 
present  life,  are  of  two  kinds.  They  are  physical, 
and  moral  or  spiritual. 

The  first   come  from,  and  relate  to,  the   body. 


142  GOD  AND  THE   FUTURE  LIFE. 

They  form  a  very  large  and  important  class;  and 
of  these,  you  will  observe,  we  must  be  entirely  rid 
whenever  we  lay  down  our  bodies.  Hunger,  thirst, 
disease,  pain,  and  all  the  wants,  natural  and  artificial, 
which  are  bred  of  a  desire  to  gratify  the  body  and 
the  passions  wThich  pertain  to  the  body — all  these 
can  have,  we  must  believe,  no  place  in  a  region 
where  the  spirit  or  soul  is  divested  of  the  encum- 
brance of  this  body. 

It  is  useful  for  you  to  consider  for  a  little  how 
wide  is  the  area  of  those  wants  which  pertain  to, 
or  arise  from,  the  body ;  and  what,  and  how  much, 
therefore,  must  disappear  of  that  which  concerns  and 
engrosses  our  present  lives,  if  we  are  to  live  here- 
after divested  of  mere  bodily  necessities  and  desires. 
It  is  sometimes  objected  to  the  Christian  idea  of 
Heaven,  as  a  place  of  universal  enjoyment,  and  of 
security  from  ills  and  accidents,  that  it  is  impracti- 
cable, and  a  mere  dream.  "  The  fundamental  condi- 
tion of  happiness  is  inequality  of  condition,"  said  an 
eminent  statesman  to  me ;  "  we  cannot  all  be  equal- 
ly happy,  because  happiness  consists  in  superiority 
over  others.  If  I  am  to  dine  I  must  have  a  cook 
and  other  servants.  I  am  happy  because  my  wants 
are  supplied ;  but  every  want  of  mine  requires,  for 
its  gratification,  the  labor  of  some  subsidiary  person, 
some  one  less  happily  placed  than  I.  It  is  the  ful- 


NATURE  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE.  143 

filling  of  our  wants  which  makes  us  happy.  If  we 
have  no  desires  to  be  gratified  we  are  simple  sav- 
ages. To  real  happiness,  in  any  condition,  there- 
fore, there  must  be  ruler  and  ruled ;  there  must  be 
greater  and  less;  there  must  be  service,  and  the 
servant  cannot  be  equally  happy  with  him  he  serves. 
Happiness  and  enjoyment  arise  entirely  out  of  dif- 
ference of  condition ;  a  man  is  happy  or  fortunate 
because  others  are  less  happy  or  fortunate.  Equal- 
ity of  conditions  would  banish  enjoyment.  If  all 
are  equally  good,  or  comfortable,  or  at  ease,  or  pow- 
erful alike,  then  the  essential  element  of  happiness 
and  enjoyment  is  lacking.  Hence,"  concluded  he, 
"  I  do  not  make  much  account  of  what  the  clergy 
tell  us  of  Heaven.  None  of  them  have  been  there ; 
it  is  all  a  muddle,  and  a  sensible  man  had  better 
think  little  of  it,  and  attend  to  his  affairs." 

I  hope  you  will  see  that  this  is  a  merely  selfish 
and  even  brutal  view.  For  what  is  it,  in  this  ar- 
gument, that  is  spoken  of  as  "happiness?"  Hank, 
wealth,  predominance,  are  things  undoubtedly  help- 
ful to  a  certain  measure  and  kind  of  enjoyment 
here;  they  are  important,  but  on  animal  grounds 
solely.  They  are  desired,  and  greedily  sought,  be- 
cause their  possession  flatters  our  ignoble  vanity; 
or  because  they  are  expected  to  insure  bodily  com- 
fort and  freedom  from  care  and  from  the  meaner 


144  GOD  AND  THE   FUTURE  LIFE. 

anxieties,  most  of  which  we  bring  on  ourselves  by 
pampering  our  bodies ;  or  because  by  their  help  men 
hope  to  advance  their  families,  or  because  they  are 
thought  to  give  access  to  pleasanter  society;  or  be- 
cause they  enable  their  possessor  to  exercise  power 
over  others,  which,  after  all,  he  has  not  the  wisdom 
to  use  rightly. 

Now,  observe  that  all  these  things,  important  as 
they  may  seem,  have  relation  solely  to  our  present 
condition,  in  which  the  body,  with  its  constant  calls, 
plays  so  great  a  part,  and  in  which  we  have  evil 
wills  and  passions  to  gratify.  Leave  off  the  body, 
with  all  it  implies  of  food,  sleep,  shelter,  rest,  amuse- 
ment, luxury,  power,  and  turn  the  intelligence  or 
spiritual  part  away  from  transitory  and  vain  or 
mean  ambitions  to  true,  because  lasting — everlasting 
objects ;  and  all  these  coveted  and  engrossing  mat- 
ters, the  possession  of  which,  after  all,  is  sure  to 
embarrass  and  mar  even  our  present  lives,  but  which 
produce  and  necessitate  inequality  of  conditions  and 
of  enjoyment,  not  merely  cease  to  be  important ; 
they  cease  to  be  considered  at  all.  They  drop  out. 

Why,  for  instance,  should  I  desire  wealth,  if  I 
have  no  bodily  necessities  and  animal  passions  to 
gratify;  if  I  no  longer  feel  the  need  of  houses, 
lands,  carriages,  servants,  society  with  its  cumbrous 
and  costly  arrangements?  Or  why,  to  go  a  long 


NATURE  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE.  145 

step  higher,  should  I  covet  power  or  predominance, 
if  I  see,  face  to  face,  the  eternal  fitness  and  har- 
mony, and  am  patient,  as  God  is  patient,  because 
I  know  that  eternity  gives  time  to  solve  all  prob- 
lems? 

But,  you  may  say,  there  are  joys  and  sorrows 
which  pertain  not  to  the  body  ;  or,  at  least,  not  to 
that  alone.  There  are  passions,  as  that  of  ambition, 
which  trouble  the  mind  or  spirit,  and  move  the 
body  only  through  that. 

Let  us  consider  this  for  a  moment.  You  will  find 
that  all  the  evil  passions  require  for  their  gratifica- 
tion the  use  of  the  body.  Granted,  now,  what  you 
have  argued  :  that  the  intelligence  or  soul  is  wedded 
to  such  passions;  suppose  it,  then,  divested  of  the 
body  on  which  it  depends  for  ability  to  gratify  these 
desires  or  propensities,  but  still  filled  with  them; 
still  longing  for  their  gratification.  Take  the  case 
of  a  man  absorbed,  as  the  first  Napoleon  was,  by  an 
intense  passion  to  rule  and  control,  but  left,  in  the 
other  life,  with  absolutely  no  means  of  acquiring 
power  over  the  least  of  his  fellows  ;  able  to  appeal 
neither  to  their  fears  nor  to  their  necessities  nor  to 
their  passions  ;  powerless,  therefore,  and  the  prey  of 
the  bitterest  pangs.  Or  take  the  case  of  any  other 
selfish  and  evil  passion  which  has  become  fastened  on 
the  intelligence  or  soul,  and  rules  and  engrosses  it, 


or 


146  GOD   AND   THE   FUTURE   LIFE. 

gnawing  for  satisfaction,  but  totally  unable,  for  lack 
of  the  body,  to  obtain  this  satisfaction. 

It  is  not  only  easily  conceivable,  it  is  a  reasonable 
and  necessary  supposition,  that  the  passions  and  de- 
sires to  which  we  here  give  ourselves  over  we  shall 
carry  with  us  into  the  future  life.  It  would  be 
contrary  to  reason  to  suppose  that  the  character,  the 
complexion  of  the  vital  part  of  man,  is  greatly  or 
at  all  changed  by  passing  out  of  the  body.  It  has 
changed  its  condition,  its  locality ;  it  no  longer  lives 
in  the  body  which  it  has  inhabited  and  nourished, 
and  used  as  a  means,  and  which,  on  its  departure, 
rots  and  goes  to  enrich  the  soil.  But  it  is  no  more 
supposable  that  this  change  of  condition  and  habi- 
tation alters  the  character,  or  eliminates  the  desires, 
aspirations,  or  passions  of  the  man,  to  which  he  has 
made  himself  subject  here,  than  you  would  argue 
that  one  would  change  his  nature  by  removing  from 
Europe  to  America,  or  from  one  street  to  another. 

Now,  there  is  no  deeper  or  keener  form  of  suf- 
fering, even  in  this  life,  than  that  which  comes  from 
the  consciousness  of  error,  and  of  opportunity  sacri- 
ficed by  folly.  Yet  here  we  see  but  dimly.  "What 
may,  and,  indeed,  what  must  not  such  misery  be  in 
the  great  light  of  the  future  life,  if  a  soul,  cumbered 
by  and  subject  to  mere  earthly  and  bodily  pas- 
sions, is  forced  to  see  that,  by  comparison  with  the 


NATURE  OP  THE  FUTURE  LIFE.  147 

higher  good,  and  in  the  light  of  the  greater  intelli- 
gence, it  had  given  itself  to  the  merest  trivialities ; 
had  devoted  its  powers  to  objects  of  no  real  value 
and  to  others  repugnant  to  those  higher  things 
which,  over  there,  must  be  seen  of  all — the  bad  as 
well  as  the  good — to  be  the  only  real  sources  of 
enduring  joy  and  life. 

We  may  thus  reasonably  conceive  for  the  wilful 
wrong-doer,  by  the  operation  of  what  may  be  called 
a  natural  law  of  the  spiritual  world,  a  far  keener 
punishment  than  is  thought  of  in  the  common  no- 
tion of  a  physical  Hell.  As  the  man  who  violates 
physical  laws  in  this  life  must  suffer  for  that  in  his 
body,  so  he  who  has  violated  moral  or  spiritual  laws, 
though  he  may  by  great  care  seem  to  evade  punish- 
ment— the  result  of  his  violation  of  laws — in  this 
world  must,  we  may  reasonably  believe,  suffer  here- 
after ;  because^  as  we  know,  spiritual  pains  are  keener 
than  physical. 

On  the  other  hand,  spiritual  joys  and  satisfactions 
are  far  greater,  even  in  this  life,  than  those  which 
arise  from  or  pertain  to  the  body.  Love,  friend- 
ship, the  fulfilment  of  duty,  the  sacrifice  of  self  for 
others,  the  love  of  knowledge,  the  sense  of  admira- 
tion for  the  wonders  of  creation,  and  the  apprecia- 
tion of  harmony  in  the  works  and  designs  of  God-- 
all  these  are  independent  of  the  body;  they  may  be 


148  GOD  AND  THE   FUTURE   LIFE. 

experienced  by  and  become  the  most  potent  and  en- 
during causes  of  happiness  in  this  life  to  even  those 
who  have  the  feeblest  bodies,  or  are  cast  in  the  least 
fortunate  situations.  Transferred  to  a  broader  life, 
with  greatly  enlarged  powers,  and  relieved  of  the 
bonds  and  slavery  in  which  we  here  live  to  our  phys- 
ical part,  we  can  conceive  of  these  sensations  and  ex- 
periences as  yielding  an  infinitely  larger  measure  of 
happiness  and  content  than  we  are  even  capable  of 
imagining  here. 

This  conception  of  the  future  state  has  nothing 
repugnant  to  any  laws  we  know  of.  It  is  in  strict 
harmony  with  all  we  know.  It  satisfies  the  senti- 
ment of  justice  which  is  implanted  in  all  our  souls. 
That  requires  a  theory  of  life  which  shall,  in  some 
way,  equalize  all  the  varied  conditions  of  life.  A 
religion  which  should  teach  that  only  the  intelligent, 
or  only  the  wealthy,  or  only  the  healthful,  or  only 
certain  families  or  combinations  of  men  should  enjoy 
happiness  at  any  time,  would  be  manifestly  demoral- 
izing, not  only  to  those  excluded,  but  even  more  so 
to  those  included  in  the  terms.  To  deny  the  possi- 
bility of  existence  after  this  life  is  to  assert  just  this 
monstrous  injustice.  It  is  to  declare  that,  as  all  the 
happiness  we  can  attain,  on  this  supposition,  is  in 
the  present  life,  only  the  shrewdest,  the  most  selfish, 
the  luckiest,  the  strongest,  the  most  cunning,  and 


NATURE   OF  THE  FUTUKE  LIFE.  149 

least  scrupulous  shall  enjoy  even  the  very  moderate 
and  variable  degree  of  happiness  attainable  by  our 
race  here.  Such  a  thought  is  depraving  and  ruinous. 

Taken  by  itself  the  present  life  is  a  failure.  To 
complete  it  and  justify  it,  the  life  beyond  the  grave 
needs  to  be  superadded  to  it. 

But,  granted  a  future  life,  then,  plainly,  that  must 
be  absolutely  Democratic.  All  men  must  be  equally 
capable,  regardless  of  circumstances,  even  here,  to 
prepare  themselves  for  it.  The  theory  of  Jesus  an- 
swers this  reasonable  demand.  It  requires  neither 
learning,  nor  wealth,  nor  great  station,  nor  peculiar 
opportunity  to  enable  a  man  to  comprehend  the 
conditions,  and,  with  God's  help,  reasonably  to  fulfil 
them.  The  golden  rule,  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 
are  intelligible  to  all  conditions  of  men.  Hence, 
Jesus  presents  God  to  us  as  a  just  God ;  as  one  who 
is  no  respecter  of  persons ;  as  the  loving  Father  of 
all  our  race.  On  this  theory  it  matters  not  where 
we  live,  or  in  what  circumstances,  whether  we  are 
fortunate  or  wretched,  raised  up  or  depressed— to 
every  human  soul  the  door  of  Heaven  stands  equally 
open.  He  shall  only  conform  himself  to  a  law  so 
simple  that  the  smallest  child  can,  with  patience,  be 
made  to  comprehend  it,  and  which  appeals  at  once 
to  the  heart  even  of  a  savage — the  law  of  returning 
good  for  evil,  and  loving  your  neighbor  as  yourself. 


150  GOD  AND  THE  FUTURE  LIFE. 

We  cannot  prove  scientifically  that  our  life  is  to 
be  continued  beyond  the  brief  term  in  which  we  in- 
habit our  bodies.  But  neither  can  any  man  prove 
the  contrary.  Of  the  two,  far  the  most  possible,  the 
most  probable,  and  the  most  credible  is  the  assertion 
of  Jesus,  that  we  are  undoubtedly  to  live  beyond  the 
grave. 

We  cannot  know  whether  there  is  a  future  life ; 
hence  Jesus,  who  so  positively  and  constantly  de- 
clared it,  still  insisted  on  Faith  as  the  great  element 
needed  to  enable  us  to  control  and  properly  shape 
our  lives  here. 

Nor  is  it  necessary  for  our  welfare  here  or  beyond 
that  we  should  have  this  certainty  of  knowledge. 
We  can  do  our  duties  without  knowing.  Hence, 
when  one  of  the  Apostles  sought  to  pry  into  the 
hidden  future,  Jesus  answered  him,  "  What  is  that 
to  thee  ?  Follow  thou  me !" 

It  certainly  is  not  stranger  or  less  credible  that 
you  should  continue  to  exist  hereafter  than  that  you 
now  exist.  On  the  contrary,  given  my  mind,  judg- 
ment, hopes,  desires,  extending  far  outside  of  and 
beyond  the  present  brief  life,  and  given  at  the  same 
time  the  boundless  space  and  possibilities  which  1 
see,  for  the  exercise  of  all  my  higher  powers  in  a 
life  outside  of  the  body,  and  as  a  reasoning  being, 
going  entirely  on  probabilities,  the  extinction  of  my 


NATURE  OF  THE  FUTURE   LIFE.  151 

spirit  with,  the  body  would  seem  far  more  wonderful, 
less  to  be  expected,  than  the  continuance  of  my  soul 
beyond  the  present  life. 

Death — physical  death  merely — is,  to  those  who 
first  see  it,  a  far  more  amazing  and  incredible  phe- 
nomenon than  life.  Death,  in  the  sense  of  extinc- 
tion, is,  in  fact,  incredible  to  mankind.  It  is  repug- 
nant to  our  thoughts.  We  do  not  really  believe  it. 
No  one  who  has  lost  a  dear  friend  but  finds  it,  in 
his  inner  soul  and  hidden  thoughts,  far  easier  to  ex- 
pect that  the  lost  shall  return  to  his  sight  and  com- 
pany at  any  moment,  even  in  this  life,  than  that  he 
or  she  is  absolutely  and  eternally  extinct. 

Yet  physical  death  is  as  common  a  fact  as  life 
itself. 

The  death  of  our  bodies  is  a  change,  and  we  are 
so  constituted  that  all  change  is  annoying  to  us. 
Men  and  women  are  creatures  of  habit,  and  we  very 
early  contract  a  habit  of  living  in  our  bodies,  which 
becomes  more  fixed  as  we  pass  middle  life :  so  that 
it  is,  for  the  most  part,  youth  only  which  rashly  risks 
the  loss  of  life.  Yet  the  decay  and  final  loss  of  the 
body  we  inhabit  is  only  like  a  compulsory  removal 
from  an  old  and  rickety  to  a  new  and  more  conven- 
ient house ;  and  it  is,  on  the  whole,  the  most  inter- 
esting experience  open  to  man,  so  far  as  we  know. 
None  other  compares  with  it ;  and,  barring  the  phys- 


152  GOD   AND  THE   FUTURE   LIFE. 

ical  repugnance  to  it  which  the  Creator  has,  for 
obvious  reasons,  implanted  in  all  living  creatures, 
and  not  in  man  alone,,  there  is  no  reason  why  we 
should  not  look  forward  to  this  inevitable  change 
with  the  same  intelligent  curiosity  with  which  we 
should  anticipate  the  exploration  of  an  unknown 
but  probably  intensely  interesting  country  in  this 
life. 

Continued  conscious  life  in  another  place  after 
the  death  of  our  bodies  is  not  an  improbable  suppo- 
sition, but  clearly  the  contrary.  We  have  the  nec- 
essary outfit  for  it.  We  are  capable  of  it.  There 
is  boundless  space  for  us.  The  further  we  penetrate 
here  into  the  mysteries  and  secrets  of  nature,  the 
more  reason  we  have  to  believe  that  of  both  time 
and  space  there  is  infinite  quantity ;  and  that  beyond 
the  grave  there  is  room  for  all. 

Is  it  not  an  incredible  supposition  that  this  earth 
of  ours — one  of  the  smallest  planets  of  what  astrono- 
mers know  to  be  one  of  the  smaller  solar  systems 
whose  number  itself  is  infinite — is  the  only  spot  in 
the  universe  inhabited  by  conscious  beings  ? 

Our  lives  are,  in  any  case,  a  mystery.  "  Whence, 
and  whither?"  are  the  two  questions  against  which 
philosophers  in  all  ages  have  broken  their  heads, 
ever  since  men  began  to  do  more  than  eat,  drink, 
and  multiply  like  the  beasts.  We  cannot  solve  these 


NATURE  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE.  153 

mysteries  here.  We  can  but  dimly  account  for  or 
explain  even  a  few  of  the  commonest  phenomena  of 
our  present  lives.  But  the  more  carefully  we  com- 
pare our  own  lives,  motives,  acts,  habits,  and  tenden- 
cies with  our  surroundings  and  our  boundaries,  the 
more  forcibly  we  are  drawn  by  reason  to  the  con- 
clusion that  there  is  a  method  and  design  in  all, 
looking  far  beyond  our  present  life. 

We  see,  for  instance,  in  many  aspects  of  human 
society  a  singular  care  exercised  for  the  preservation 
of  the  individual's  liberty  of  action.  Consider  for 
a  moment  what  would  be  the  effect  on  human  so- 
ciety, and  on  the  possibility  of  individual  develop- 
ment of  character,  if  the  span  of  life  were  consider- 
ably prolonged!  What  would  be  the  effect  on  a 
large  section  of  our  race  if  men  of  great  and  pecul- 
iar genius,  like  Csesar,  Bonaparte,  or  the  first  Van- 
derbilt,  could  live  even  two  hundred  and  fifty 
years  ?  In  that  time  the  first  Vanderbilt,  with  his 
faculties  unimpaired,  would  have  mastered  all  the 
railroads  and  other  means  of  intercommunication 
in  America.  Bonaparte  would  have  subjugated 
the  greater  part  of  the  inhabited  world,  and  have 
stretched  his  iron  and  stupid  despotism  over  all 
Europe.  A  few  such  men,  with  only  so  much 
time  to  work  in,  would  impose  their  fetters  on  the 
will  of  the  human  race,  and  wrench  men's  lives 


154:  GOD  AND  THE   FUTURE  LIFE. 

and  minds  out  of  their  normal  relations  to  God 
and  to  Nature. 

Thought,  experience,  will,  life,  remain  free  in  the 
mass  of  individuals,  largely  because  in  the  mysteri- 
ous plan  of  the  Creator  seventy  years  complete  the 
natural  life  of  man,  and  soon  after  fifty  his  facul- 
ties and  energies  grow  dull,  even  though  too  often 
his  greed,  ambition,  and  other  evil  passions  increase 
immoderately. 

Again,  we  give  our  lives  here  to  the  pursuit  of 
happiness,  and  yet  know,  or  may  know  out  of  all 
human  experience,  that  it  is  impossible  for  man  to 
realize  even  the  lowest  ideal.  We  are  defeated  at 
every  turn.  A  glutton,  whose  notion  of  bliss  is 
abundance  of  pleasing  food,  may,  with  labor  and 
good-luck,  attain  that ;  but  indigestion,  gout,  or  lack 
of  appetite  presently  spoils  his  enjoyment.  "  It  is  a 
world  of  disappointment,"  complained  an  old  sailor ; 
"you  can't  be  drunk  all  the  time,  and  when  you 
get  sober  you  have  a  headache!"  This  forecastle 
philosopher  rudely  epitomized  the  experience  of 
mankind.  It  is  only  the  joys  of  the  higher,  the 
spiritual,  life  which  bring  no  reaction  and  breed  no 
disappointed  hopes. 

Our  present  life  is  filled  with  pains,  anxieties,  and 
sorrows,  with,  on  the  whole,  but  a  moderate  admix- 
ture of  futile  delights  in  the  most  fortunate.  All 


NATURE  OF  THE   FUTURE  LIFE.  155 

that  we  see,  feel,  and  know  of  it,  all  our  capacity  for 
suffering,  and  for  happiness  alike — all  has  sense,  co- 
herence, and  ceases  to  be  repugnant  to  our  ideal  of 
justice,  if  we  suppose  that  we  are  but  temporary  so- 
journers  here,  and  that  the  main  object  of  our  brief 
lives  in  the  body  is  that  we  may  train,  develop,  and 
educate  our  nobler  faculties  for  another  sphere  of 
existence  and  of  activity. 

Consider,  again,  how  vile  is  the  merely  animal  part 
of  man  when  it  shows  itself  through  the  removal  of 
moral  or  social  restraints ;  how  absolutely  and  greatly 
different  from  and  worse  than  that  of  the  beasts. 

Consider  how  mysterious  and  dangerous  is  the 
influence  of  the  body  on  the  spirit ;  how  physical 
habits  creep  on  our  nobler  part,  and  subjugate  and 
take  possession  of  it,  until  we  seem  to  see,  in  the 
last  degradation  of  even  powerful  intellects,  the  body 
swallowing  up,  incorporating  the  spirit,  and  leaving 
the  vicious  and  selfish  animal  propensities  supreme. 
A  miser  is  blindly  covetous,  not  only  beyond  his 
needs,  but  beyond  the  time  when  he  can  use  his 
hoard.  A  lewd  person  becomes  the  victim  of  de- 
praved thoughts  which  remain  to  torture  him  long 
.after  his  body  has  ceased  to  urge  him,  and  when  it 
refuses  to  respond  to  his  desires.  By  many  instances 
we  see  that  the  spirit  may  become  depraved  and  re- 
main so  independently  of  the  body,  even  here.  How 


156  GOD   AND  THE  FUTURE  LIFE. 

reasonable,  then,  is  the  thought  that,  granted  a  fut- 
ure life,  the  depraved  spirit  must  carry  its  vile  de- 
sires and  passions  into  that  state,  to  torture  it  by  the 
double  suffering  of  a  slavery  to  evil  in  a  condition 
where  the  bad  impulse  can  receive  no  satisfaction, 
and  where  its  viciousness  and  its  error  are  clearly 
seen  "  face  to  face." 

We  remember — is  not  that  a  mystery  of  myste- 
ries ?  Why  should  we  not  rather  forget  ?  Our  bod- 
ies decay,  yet  our  memories  remain ;  torpid,  but  easi- 
ly revived.  We  forget  nothing — alas !  not  even  the 
trivial  or  the  base,  which  we  would  gladly  forget. 

Nature  is  hard  and  cruel.  Man's  whole  life  is 
spent  in  a  contest  with  her.  God  might,  doubtless, 
have  made  this  warfare  easier  to  us ;  He  would,  per- 
haps, have  done  so  had  He  not  seen  that  the  contest 
is  needed  to  develop  our  higher  and  nobler  faculties ; 
to  make  us  fit,  perhaps  even  to  make  us  capable,  of 
immortality. 

Consider  how  strange  a  mystery  is  time!  We 
measure  it  with  the  greatest  accuracy,  and  yet,  so  far 
as  our  sensations  go,  an  hour  is  a  curiously  unfixed 
quantity.  In  suffering,  hours  are  as  days ;  in  joy, 
they  are  as  minutes.  We  speak  of  millions  of  years, 
of  millions  of  miles.  Try  to  compare  in  your  minds 
these  vast  terms  with  the  words  eternity,  infinity, 
and  how  pregnant  is  the  Psalmist's  saying,  that  to 


NATURE  OF  THE  FUTURE   LIFE.  157 

God  who  dwells  in  eternity  "a  thousand  years  are 
but  as  yesterday  when  it  is  past,  and  as  a  watch  in 
the  night ;"  and  Peter's,  "  But,  beloved,  be  not  igno- 
rant of  this  one  thing  [as  a  first  principle  in  consid- 
ering God's  dealings  with  mankind],  that  one  day  is 
wTith  the  Lord  as  a  thousand  years,  and  a  thousand 
years  as  one  day." 

Is  it  not  an  important  thought  that  all  the  re- 
searches and  discoveries  of  modern  science  serve 
only  to  make  what  we  call  time  more  trifling,  eter- 
nity more  real,  and  space  less  bounded  ? 

Do  you  complain  that  God  has  left  us  in  such 
absolute  intellectual  ignorance  of  the  hereafter*? 
Does  it  appear  to  you  in  itself  unreasonable?  If 
God  intended  us  to  be  free  agents,  we  could  be  so 
only  on  the  condition  that  we  should  'know  nothing 
of  the  future  even  in  this  life.  Let  us  have  any, 
even  the  least,  certainty  and  positive  knowledge  that 
there  is  a  future  life,  aside  from  revelation,  or  even 
of  the  future  in  this  life,  and  some  of  the  essential 
conditions  of  our  existence,  as  free  agents,  at  once 
disappear.  In  the  light  of  such  knowledge  we 
should  be  free  no  longer,  but  coerced.  The  scheme 
of  what  we  call  Nature  has  clearly  not  our  physical 
comfort  for  its  end,  but,  through  the  struggle  forced 
upon  us,  our  moral  and  intellectual  elevation,  and 
preparation  for  another  and  higher  stage  of  exist- 


158  GOD  AND  THE  FUTURE  LIFE. 

ence.  Hence,  as  Paul  picturesquely  says,  "  We  are 
as  those  who  seek  a  country." 

Let  us,  therefore,  being  forced  to  choose,  and  hav- 
ing intellectually  the  power  of  choice — let  us  elect 
the  most  probable,  and  act  on  the  theory,  the  FAITH, 
that  conscious  life  is  for  us  eternal.  That  if  it  has 
begun  here  it  is  to  end  never.  On  that  theory  alone 
we  can  sensibly  conduct  our  lives  here,  and  make  the 
most  of  them. 

And  you  may  safely  admit  that,  revelation  aside, 
it  is  only  a  theory ;  for  the  other  is  no  more,  and  is, 
on  the  whole,  as  all  reasoning  shows,  far  less  prob- 
able. 


PRAYER.  159 


XV. 

PRAYER. 

PRAYER  is  when  you  speak  with  God. 

Naturally  this  is,  or  should  be,  mainly,  a  private 
conversation.  Hence,  Jesus  insisted,  "When  thou 
prayest,  enter  into  thy  closet." 

He  to  whom  we  speak  when  we  pray  is  "Our 
Father  in  Heaven,"  and  Jesus  impressed  upon  his 
hearers,  continually,  this  relation  of  children  to  a 
father.  As  all  His  instruction  was  reasonable,  so 
also  this ;  for  if  there  is  a  future  life  this  describes 
the  obvious  and  natural  relation  between  men  and 
Him  who  created  men. 

We  are  weak,  He  is  strong ;  we  are  ignorant,  He 
is  wise ;  we  are  short-sighted,  He  sees  the  end  from 
the  beginning. 

Similar  in  a  degree  are  the  differences  between 
little  children  here  and  their  earthly  father.  They 
cannot  comprehend  his  purposes,  much  less  his  laws, 
which,  though  made  for  their  good,  seem  in  their 
eye  harsh  and  often  tyrannical.  They  ask,  and  he 
denies ;  they  prefer  their  own  wisdom,  but  he  com- 


160  GOD  AND  THE   FUTURE   LIFE. 

pels  them  to  his ;  they  plan,  and  he  interrupts  their 
plans.  Only  as  they  come  to  years  of  discretion  do 
the  children  of  wise  and  thoughtful  parents  even 
begin  to  comprehend  the  care  which  has,  oftenest 
unknown  to  them,  guided  their  early  years ;  the  lov- 
ing kindness  which  denied,  and  disappointed,  and 
compelled,  and,  with  endless  efforts,  led  the  young 
body  and  mind  to  good  habits  and  good  principles, 
and  which,  meantime,  had  often  to  bear  with  diso- 
bedience, misconduct,  inattention,  and  misapprehen- 
sion. 

In  this  relation,  as  Jesus  taught,  men  and-women 
stand  towards  God,  "  Our  Father  in  Heaven."  "  Ex- 
cept ye  become  as  little  children,"  He  said,  "ye  can- 
not enter  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven." 

Now,  what  a  loving  father  expects  of  his  chil- 
dren is,  not  that  they  shall,  at  once,  be  unfailingly 
perfect.  He  knows  that  to  the  building  up  of  the 
character  of  his  children  go  years  of  patient  training 
and  personal  experience ;  that  this  work  is  not  com- 
pleted even  when  they  are  young  men  and  women. 
His  first  desire  is  that  they  shall  love  him ;  for  it 
is  only  when  he  has  secured  their  love  and  confi- 
dence that  they  will  be  inclined  patiently  and  con- 
fidingly, or  faithfully,  to  follow  his  instructions. 
Through  their  love  he  looks  to  see  the  growth  of 
faith  in  his  superior  wisdom ;  that  faith  which, 


PRAYER.  161 

while  it  will  not,  as  lie  knows,  shield  them  against 
disappointments,  or  absolve  them  from  obedience  to 
his  will,  yet  tempers  their  sorrows,  and  makes  sub- 
mission reasonable,  and  hence  easier. 

A  child  asks  many  things  of  its  parents,  and  is 
often  refused.  It  asks  many  things  which  seem  to 
it  reasonable,  but  which  the  greater  wisdom  of  the 
parent  denies,  because  they  are  hurtful  or  unreason- 
able— not  because  he  takes  pleasure  in  denying  the 
wishes  of  his  children. 

What,  then,  shall  we,  grown  men  and  women — but 
still  children  in  all  wisdom  compared  with  our  Fa- 
ther in  Heaven — what  shall  we  ask  Him  for  when 
we  pray  ? 

If  He  is  really  our  Father,  I  think  we  may  un- 
doubtedly so  speak  to  Him  as  a  child  here  speaks 
to  the  father  of  whose  love  it  feels  assured.  "We 
may  tell  Him  all  that  is  in  our  hearts.  We  may 
isk  Him  for  everything  which  seems  to  us  desirable. 
W^e  may  come  to  Him  with  all  our  cares,  burdens, 
anxieties,  sorrows,  wishes.  "  Cast  yoiir  care  (or  anx- 
iety) upon  the  Lord,  for  He  careth  for  you,"  says 
the  Scripture. 

But  we  are  to  ask  not  as  petulant,  or  greedy,  or 
unreasonable  beings ;  we  are  to  pray,  knowing  that 
He  to  whom  our  prayer  is  addressed  is  infinitely 
wiser  than  we  who  ask,  and  knows  what  we  cannot 

11 


162  GOD  AND  THE   FUTURE   LIFE. 

know — what  is  for  our  best  good.  He  would  not 
be  our  Father  if  we  could  not  go  to  Him  with  all 
our  fears  and  hopes,  our  sorrows  and  joys — if  we 
could  not  open  to  Him  our  hearts  and  our  thoughts. 
But  neither  would  He  be  our  Father  if  He  should 
use  no  wisdom  in  the  answers  to  our  prayers ;  nor 
should  we  be  dutiful  or  loving  children  if  we  asked 
without  confidence  in  His  love  and  wisdom. 

The  sum  of  all  prayer  to  God  is  in  these  words : 
"  Thy  will  be  done."  But  is  it  not  the  same  with 
every  request  which  a  thoughtful  child  makes  of 
its  parents?  Is  it  not  the  same  with  every  prayer 
which  a  good  soldier  addresses  to  his  general?  Is 
it  not  the  natural,  the  proper  and  necessary  sum  of 
every  prayer  made  by  an  ignorant  person  to  one  of 
greater  intelligence  or  wisdom?  We  wish  ardently 
for  many  things  in  this  life :  how  often  and  often 
we  see,  later,  that  had  our  desires  of  the  time  been 
granted,  they  would  have  been  for  us  the  greatest 
misfortunes ! 

"I  thank  God  oftener  for  those  wishes  which 
have  been  ungratified  than  those  which  were  ful- 
filled," said  a  middle-aged  man — and  only  spoke  the 
common  experience  of  most  men  and  women  who 
have  lived  considerate  and  intelligent  lives. 

"What  we  call  "natural  laws"  are  the  common 
rules  of  that  household  in  which  God  is  "our  Fa- 


PRAYER.  163 

ther."  We  may  violate  those  laws,  but  this  viola- 
tion brings  its  own  punishment.  Does  that  seem 
hard  ?  Or  unreasonable  ?  Would  it  not  be  really  un- 
reasonable if  God  had  provided  either  that  it  should 
be  impossible  for  us  to  break  these  laws,  or  that  we 
should  not  suffer  from  doing  so?  If  God  is  our 
Father,  we  may  reasonably  regard  it  as  an  evidence 
of  His  interest  in  us  that  he  leaves  us  at  liberty  to 
break  His  laws,  and  to  bring  upon  ourselves  the 
punishments  which  follow ;  because  this  experience, 
often  sorrowful  enough,  this  suffering  from  which 
we  shrink,  secures  what,  in  view  of  the  future  and 
real  life,  is  the  needed  development  of  our  faculties 
and  powers.  A  wise  father  knows  that  it  is  the 
child  which  has  burned  its  fingers,  and  not  that 
which  has  been  persistently  guarded  by  nurses  from 
doing  so,  which  is  most  certain  not  to  play  with  fire. 
The  prayer  of  faith  is  necessarily  the  prayer  of 
him  who  believes  that  God  will  do  that  which  is  for 
the  best ;  of  him  who  does  his  duty,  and  willingly 
leaves  the  result  to  God.  On  any  other  considera- 
tion prayer  would  be  the  unreasonable  appeal  of  a 
creature  of  finite  and  very  limited  intelligence  to  a 
servant  of  absolute  power  without  intelligence — that 
is  to  say,  it  would  be  an  absurdity.  You  have  proba- 
bly read  of  what  were  foolishly  called  "  prayer  tests," 
which  disclosed  this  singular  notion,  that  God  is  to 


164  GOD  AND  THE   FUTURE   LIFE. 

be  regarded  not  as  a  guide  and  helper  for  us  in  spir- 
itual things,  but  rather  as  a  powerful  but  subordi- 
nate being  forced  to  do  our  will,  if  only  we  scream 
loud  enough  and  unanimously  enough  to  attract  His 
attention.  It  was  to  such  appeals  as  this  that  Jesus 
made  answer,  "A  wicked  and  adulterous  generation 
seeketh  a  sign." 

When  we  speak  with  God,  when  we  ask  some- 
what of  Him,  it  should  surely  be  with  a  right  view 
of  the  relations  of  the  things  we  desire.  We  have  a 
right  to  ask  Him  for  those  tilings  which  are  neces- 
sary to  us  :  these  are  help  and  strength  in  the  effort 
to  do  our  duties,  and  to  avoid  wrong -doing;  for 
guidance  in  our  lives ;  for  His  blessing  on  our  plans 
and  efforts,  that  we  may  have  wisdom  to  direct  them 
rightly ;  for  courage  and  serenity  of  soul  under  diffi- 
culties, disappointments,  and  sorrows ;  for  wisdom  to 
conduct  our  lives  aright,  and  in  such  manner  that 
their  general  tendency  shall  be  to  prepare  and  train 
our  spirits  for  the  future  life. 

Shall  we,  then,  not  bring  to  Him,  also,  our  dis- 
tresses here,  nor  ask  for  safety  out  of  peril,  for  secu- 
rity in  life  and  health,  for  prosperity,  for  recovery 
from  illness? 

If  God  is  our  Father  we  cannot  help,  as  children, 
but  bring  all  these  matters  before  Him.  But  the 
"  prayer  of  Faith  "  which  we  read  of  must  surely  be 


PRAYER.  165 

the  prayer  of  him  who  appreciably  remembers  the 
true  relations  of  things.  In  the  eyes  of  God  the  All- 
seeing,  death — physical  death  —  must  appear  but  a 
minor,  perhaps  even  a  trivial  incident  in  the  life  of 
the  individual — the  coming  home  from  school,  rather 
than  the  painful  leaving  home  for  school.  So  of  all 
other  and  what  we  are  accustomed  to  think  lesser 
griefs.  "We  reasonably  believe  that  He  sees  their 
true  bearing,  their  right  relation  to  the  great  sum 
of  the  individual's  life  and  experience.  Is  it  not  for 
us,  also,  to  strive  for  this  broader  outlook  ?  and  if, 
as  reason  and  Faith  alike  demand,  we  attain  to  this, 
must  it  not  necessarily  guide  our  petitions  to  Him 
whom  we  call  our  Father  ? 

In  the  biography  of  the  Confederate  general  Syd- 
ney Johnston,  written  by  his  son,  there  is  this  touch- 
ing passage :  "  He  spoke  little  of  his  inner  life ;  but 
once,  in  Austin,  he  said  that  a  clergyman  had  been 
urging  upon  him  the  benefit  of  prayer,  and  added, 
6 1  did  not  think  it  necessary  to  tell  him  that  it  is 
many  years  since  I  have  closed  my  eyes  in  sleep 
without  prayer.  Indeed,  I  feel  that  I  cannot  thank 
God  enough  for  His  goodness  to  me.  Beyond  that 
thanksgiving  I  almost  dread  to  go — His  care  is  so 
great  and  my  view  so  narrow,  that  I  do  not  know 
how  to  ask  God  for  anything  better  for  me  and 
mine  than — His  will  be  done.' " 


166  GOD  AND  THE   FUTURE   LIFE. 

In  a  great  storm  at  sea,  when  the  ship  was  mo- 
mentarily expected  to  founder,  the  passengers  gath- 
ered in  the  cabin,  and  one  was  asked  to  pray.  Stand- 
ing up,  with  his  hands  folded,  he  said,  "  Oh  God, 
our  Heavenly  Father,  Thy  will  be  done,  whatever  it 
may  be." 

The  loss  and  sorrow  which  turn  your  thoughts 
from  this  to  the  other  life ;  the  care  or  disappoint- 
ment which  forces  you  to  see  the  vanity  of  human 
wishes  and  plans,  and  leads  you  to  set  your  hopes 
higher — these  may  be  infinitely  greater  sources  of 
happiness  to  you  than  the  most  continued  security, 
prosperity,  and  success. 

Surely  we  may  ask  God  to  spare  us  suffering  and 
sorrow ;  but  surely,  considering  our  relations  to  Him, 
our  ignorance  and  His  wisdom,  we  ought  to  ask,  as 
Jesus  prayed  on  the  Mount  of  Olives,  "  Father,  if 
thou  be  willing,  remove  this  cup  from  me ;  never- 
theless, not  my  will,  but  thine  be  done."  And  as  to 
Him  in  His  agony,  so  doubtless  to  other  faithful 
souls,  there  will  appear  "  an  angel  unto  Him  from 
Heaven,  strengthening  Him." 

"  All  things  work  together  for  good  to  them  that 
love  the  Lord  and  do  His  commandments."  Is  it 
not  for  us  to  pray  mainly  that  we  shall  be  able  to 
turn  to  our  own  and  lasting  good,  to  the  improve- 
ment of  our  immortal  parts,  all  the  events  of  our 


PRAYER.  167 

lives,  be  they  joyous  or  sorrowful  ?  that  thus,  as  we 
"justify  the  ways  of  God  to  man,"  we  may  draw 
food,  and  not  poison,  for  our  daily  bread  ? 

It  is  not  necessary  that  you  should  continue  to 
live ;  but  it  is  necessary  that  you  should  live  rightly. 
To  do  that,  you  need  that  Divine  help  which  you 
have  a  right  to  pray  for.  That  is  the  main  thing  in 
life — the  only  real  thing. 

In  the  affairs  of  this  present  life  we  do  not  know 
— we  cannot  foresee  what  is  for  our  good.  That  we 
should  make  known  to  God  our  wishes  is  reasonable ; 
that  we  should  expect  these  wishes  to  be  granted  as 
of  course  is  unreasonable,  considering  our  own  igno- 
rance and  short-sightedness,  and  absolute  incapacity 
to  discern  even  the  mere  physical  future,  much  less 
to  foresee  what  circumstances  will  best  serve  to 
train  us  for  the  other  and  infinitely  more  impor- 
tant life.  For  the  affairs  of  this  life  the  true  at- 
titude is  to  do  our  duty ;  to  be  diligent,  careful,  dis- 
cerning ;  to  shape  our  lives  according  to  His  com- 
mandments, and  to  leave  the  rest  to  Him  "who 
careth  for  us." 

"  If  you  want  to  be  a  sailor,  the  first  thing  you 
must  learn  is  to  do  what  the  captain  tells  you,"  said 
an  old  seaman  to  a  ship's  boy.  "  I  know  that  very 
well,"  replied  the  little  boy.  "If  the  captain  tells 
you  to  jump  overboard,  you  must  jump  at  once," 


168  GOD  AND  THE  FUTURE   LIFE. 

continued  the  wise  old  quartermaster.  "  But  I  can- 
not swim ;  I  should  drown,"  said  the  boy.  "  That's 
none  of  your  business,  my  boy,"  was  the  reply ; 
"that's  the  captain's  business..  Yours  is  to  jump 
overboard  when  he  orders  you  to." 

That  was  the  old  rule  of  the  sea,  and  it  made 
men — brave  and  dutiful  men — of  the  boys.  It  is 
the  true  rule  of  our  lives  towards  God — to  do  our 
duties,  and  leave  the  result  to  Him.  It  is  only  as 
we  live  in  this  attitude  towards  our  Father  who  is 
in  Heaven,  that  we  are  able  to  keep  our  souls  in 
peace  and  rest. 

To  live,  and  to  live  rightly,  is  not  an  easy  task — 
God  cannot  help  knowing  that. 

Prayer  is  when  you  speak  with  God.  It  may  be 
that  you  have  nothing  to  say  to  Him. 

Then  it  is  only  respectful  to  keep  silence. 

Cultivate,  however,  as  a  means  of  comfort,  of  sol- 
ace, of  help  towards  well-doing,  and  towards  serenity 
of  soul,  the  habit  of  prayer — the  habit,  I  mean,  not 
of  saying  over  set  or  meaningless  phrases,  but  of 
speaking  with  God.  It  will  lighten  your  cares.  It 
will  insure  you  good  company.  It  will  help  you  to 
consider  your  life,  its  meaning  and  purpose ;  to  re- 
gard, in  the  right  light,  its  joys  and  sorrows,  its 
gratifications  and  disappointments.  The  spirit  of 
prayer  is  the  'spirit  of  submission  to  a  higher  will, 


PRAYER.  169 

and  not  that  merely,  but  to  an  infinitely  wiser  and 
more  intelligent  will  than  you  own. 

If5  by  any  chance,  you  do  not  need  this  Divine 
help  and  guidance,  then  do  not  ask  it.  Prayer  is 
for  you,  not  for  God.  The  father  does  not  so  much 
need  his  children  as  they  need  him  ;  his  care,  protec- 
tion, and  help.  Doubtless  your  parents  are  happy 
if  they  possess  your  love  and  confidence ;  but  they 
are  so  mainly  because  that  enables  them  to  instruct 
and  benefit  you. 

But  you  will  be  unfortunate  if  you  attain  to  years 
of  discretion  without  such  experiences  of  life,  and 
such  knowledge  of  your  own  weakness  and  inade- 
quacy to  any  true  living,  as  will  make  you  desire 
and  need  constantly  to  ask  our  Father  in  Heaven 
for  help. 

All  men  who  have  risen  above  the  intellectual 
condition  of  a  pig  in  a  sty  have  felt  this  need  of 
some  outward  help  in  their  lives  to  what  they  knew 
to  be  right  living.  When  we  look  into  our  hearts 
and  examine  ourselves,  we  see  that  we  are  "  prone 
to  evil,  as  the  sparks  fly  upwards,"  and  that  "  the 
heart  of  man  is  deceitful  above  all  things  and  des- 
perately wicked."  "  Allowing  everything  to  be  an 
instinct  [in  man]  w^hich  anybody  has  ever  asserted 
to  be  one,"  says  John  Stuart  Mill,  "  it  remains  true 
that  nearly  every  respectable  attribute  of  humanity 


170  GOD  AND  THE   FUTURE   LIFE. 

is  the  result,  not  of  instinct,  but  of  a  victory  over  in- 
stinct. *  *  *  It  is  only  in  a  highly  artificial  condition 
of  human  nature  that  the  notion  grew  up,  or  I  be- 
lieve ever  could  have  grown  up,  that  goodness  was 
natural."  And  again :  "  Of  the  social  virtues  it  is 
almost  superfluous  to  speak,  so  completely  is  it  the 
verdict  of  all  experience  that  selfishness  is  natural. 
By  this  I  do  not,  in  anywise,  mean  to  deny  that 
sympathy  is  natural  also.  *  *  *  But  sympathetic 
characters*  left  uncontrolled  and  given  up  to  their 
sympathetic  instincts,  are  as  selfish  as  others.  The 
difference  is  in  the  kind  of  selfishness — theirs  is  not 
solitary,  but  sympathetic  selfishness" 

Scripture  and  one  of  the  greatest  of  modern  philos- 
ophers thus  agree  as  to  the  natural  character  of  man. 
But  you  need  no  other  evidence  than  your  own  con- 
science. Examine  your  conduct,  your  motives,  your 
thoughts,  and  you  discover  that  you  are  far  more 
easily  and  constantly  moved  to  evil  than  to  good. 
It  requires  a  constant  effort  to  keep  even  a  toler- 
able control  over  our  evil  passions  and  propensities. 
"For  the  good  that  I  would,  I  do  not,"  says  St. 
Paul ;  "  but  the  evil  which  I  would  not,  that  I  do ;" 
and  this  is  the  experience  of  all  men.  Against  the 
evil  which  thus  asserts  itself  in  us,  and  wars  with 
our  right  and  reasonable  living,  we  are  forced  con- 
tinually to  strive.  In  this  strife  you  may  pray  for 


PRAYER.  171 

the  help  of  God — that  He  may  give  yon,  at  least, 
the  desire  for  good.     Here  it  is  profitable  to  you 
to  cultivate  intimate  relations  with  the  Heavenly 
Father.     Here  you  may  ask,  in  the  certainty  that 
your  earnest  prayer  will  have  answer. 

It  may  be  that  you  do  not  feel  the  need  of  this 
assistance.  In  that  case  you  are  free  to  do  without 
it.  Jesus  not  only  taught  us  how  to  pray  —  He 
urged  frequent,  constant  prayer ;  but  as  something 
needed  for  our  own  uses,  our  own  protection,  and 
not  as  the  abject  homage  of  a  subject  to  a  tyrant. 


172  GOD  AND  THE   FUTURE  LIFE. 


XVL 

CONDUCT  OF  LIFE. 

DOES  the  fact  of  a  future  life  lessen  for  us  the  im- 
portance or  interest  of  the  affairs  of  the  present  ? 

On  the  contrary,  I  think  you  will  see  that  this 
consideration  is  needed  to  give  to  the  present  stage 
of  our  existence  its  real  value  and  interest.  To  hold 
otherwise  would  be  to  assert  that  the  blind  drifting 
of  a  wreck  at  the  mercy  of  wind  and  current  is  more 
important  than  the  fixed  course  of  a  ship  bound  for 
a  port,  and  making  a  voyage  of  design  and  purpose. 
The  master  of  such  a  ship  has  many  cares  and  anxie- 
ties; he  needs  skill,  foresight,  prudence,  watchful- 
ness. 'He  meets  head -winds  and  treacherous  cur- 
rents, storms  and  baffling  calms.  He  cannot  always 
lie  on  his  course,  and  he  may  be  beaten  off  for  a 
time  by  adverse  gales ;  but  he  has  always  his  port 
in  mind,  and  his  whole  voyage  is  full  of  life,  of  in- 
terest and  importance,  because,  and  only  because,  to 
him,  it  has  this  definite  purpose. 

We  are  free,  here,  to  choose  moral  good  or  evil 
for  our  lives,  though  evil  is  easier  to  us  than  good, 


CONDUCT  OF  LIFE.  173 

as  it  requires  less  effort  of  the  crew  of  a  ship  to  let 
her  drift  than  to  hold  her  to  her  course.  Our  phys- 
ical lives,  also,  are  largely  under  our  own  control. 
We  inherit  much,  and  we  are  subject,  more  or  less, 
to  our  surroundings ;  but  it  is  easy  and  mischievous 
to  over-estimate  the  power  of  these  influences.  None 
of  them,  nor  all  of  them,  suffice  to  prevent  man  from 
maintaining  true  relations  to  God  and  to  his  fellow- 
men. 

On  the  whole,  the  possession  of  wealth  and  power 
is,  perhaps,  the  influence  most  strongly  adverse  to 
his  right  living  who  has  them.  Hence  that  deep 
saying  of  Jesus  to  the  rich  man :  "  One  thing  thou 
lackest ;  go  thy  way,  sell  whatsoever  thou  hast,  and 
give  to  the  poor,  and  follow  thou  me !"  Yet,  as  He 
added  to  his  disciples,  "  with  God  all  things  are  pos- 
sible ;"  and  so  the  world  has  seen  beneficent  rulers, 
and  rich  men  who,  though  not  without  great  and  con- 
stant care  and  labor,  so  managed  that  their  wealth 
did  not  become  directly  or  indirectly  their  curse. 

As  to  poverty  and  distress,  as  to  want  and  afflic- 
tion, as  to  friendlessness  and  misfortune — these  do 
not  harden  their  hearts  who  suffer  them ;  on  the 
contrary,  it  is  among  the  very  poor  that  we  see  the 
most  ready  and  uncomplaining  self-sacrifice ;  it  is 
when  men  are  desolate  and  afflicted  that  they  are 
moved  to  seek  God. 


174  GOD  AND  THE  FUTURE  LIFE. 

In  our  bodies  we  are  subject  to  natural  laws, 
in  common  with  other  creatures ;  but,  unlike  other 
creatures,  men  are  able  by  their  intelligence  and  will 
to  conquer  adverse  circumstances  of  many  kinds ;  to 
"  subdue  the  earth."  "  Our  wills  in  their  degree 
modify  the  course  of  nature,"  says  that  profound 
naturalist,  Dr.  Asa  Gray,  "  subservient  though  that 
be  to  fixed  laws.  By  our  wills  we  make  these  laws 
subserve  our  ends.  We  momentarily  violate  the 
uniformity  of  nature."  You  may  make  of  your  life 
here  largely  what  you  wish.  But  to  do  that  you 
must  plan  definitely,  and  must  strive  not  merely 
with  industry,  but  intelligently.  No  man's  fort- 
unes are  so  humble  that  he  may  not  live  an  individ- 
ual life ;  and  it  is  that  kind  of  living  only — that 
maintenance  of  your  individual  will  and  character 
against  all  influences  and  pressure  of  society  and 
surroundings  which  makes  the  man's  life  valuable 
or  important,  or  even  useful,  to  himself. 

You  become  an  intelligent  and  substantive  being 
only  as  you  strive  to  do  what  you  have  thought  out 
for  yourself  to  be  the  best  and  the  right.  It  is  in 
the  strife  to  realize  their  own  ideals  that  men  be- 
come strong  and  intelligent — whether  for  good  or 
for  bad  depends  upon  the  choice  they  have  made. 
To  be  a  mere  machine  is  not  to  be  a  man  at  all. 
The  world  was  given  us  to  conquer.  Life  was  given 


CONDUCT  OF  LIFE.  175 

you  that  you  should,  by  your  own  will  and  efforts, 
maintain  it  as  your  own  life,  and  not  suffer  yourself 
to  become,  so  far  as  your  thoughts,  your  aspirations, 
your  consent  go,  a  mere  insignificant  fraction  of 
that  silly  aggregate  which  we  call  Society.  "  For 
what  is  a  man  advantaged,"  asked  Jesus,  "if  he 
gain  the  whole  world  and  lose  himself  ?" 

Is,  then,  your  life  here  under  your  own  control 
to  the  degree  I  have  suggested,  and  which  is  neces- 
sary to  enable  you  to  live  a  true  and  individual  life  ? 
Undoubtedly. 

Not  without  care,  not  without  intelligent  care,  not 
without  a  constant  struggle  against  evil  inclinations 
and  habits,  not  without  thought,  determination,  the 
exercise  of  judgment  and  will  —  not,  even,  without 
suffering ;  and  assuredly  not  without  much  and  con- 
stant self-denial. 

It  needs  the  exercise  of  all  your  faculties  to  be  a 
man — an  immortal  soul. 

It  is  much  easier  to  be  a  pig,  and  that  career,  also, 
is  open  to  you ;  for  in  this  world  we  are  at  liberty  to 
choose. 

But  do  not  make  the  miserable  mistake  of  holding 
Providence,  or  fate,  responsible  for  your  manner  of 
life.  "  Ohne  Phosphor  kein  Gedanke,"  the  famous 
dictum  of  a  German  man  of  science  ("  "Without  phos- 
phorus there  is  no  thought "),  may  have  its  true  side 


176  GOD  AND  THE  FUTURE  LIFE. 

— for  it  is  only  as  much  as  to  say  that,  in  this  life, 
without  hands  we  cannot  take  hold ;  without  a  stom- 
ach we  cannot  digest ;  without  a  body  we  cease  to 
live  here  in  this  world.  But  beyond  this  it  has  no 
sense  or  pertinence,  as  you  may  easily  see  by  many 
instances. 

Of  all  merely  physical  joys  and  advantages,  for 
instance,  health  is  undoubtedly  by  far  the  greatest. 
With  sound  health  you  may  confidently  look  to 
accomplish  any  object  you  have  at  heart.  With 
life,  health,  and  patience,  nothing  is  too  difficult  to 
achieve  in  this  world.  ISTow,  pray  notice  that  good 
health  is  at  your  command.  It  requires  only  your 
intelligent  care  to  attain  and  keep  it.  The  obvious 
proof  of  this  lies  in  the  well-known  fact  that  persons 
of  naturally  feeble  frame  and  constitution  often  live 
long  and  accomplish  much.  They  have  been  com- 
pelled, as  the  very  condition  of  living  at  all,  to  re- 
frain from  excess,  and  to  observe  the  laws  of  health 
with  care. 

Do  not,  therefore,  blame  "  the  mysterious  hand  of 
Providence "  for  those  incidents  of  your  life  which 
care  and  prudence  could  have  prevented.  "God 
helps  those  who  help  themselves,"  and  His  point  of 
view  is  different,  and  much  further  -  reaching  than 
ours.  It  is  clear  that  He  designed  us  to  increase  our 
intelligence  and  our  wisdom  by  the  study  of  those 


CONDUCT   OP   LIFE.  177 

laws  according  to  wliicli  the  world  about  us  goes  on. 
TJie  fire  which  burns  our  fingers  forces  us  by  suffer- 
ing to  the  knowledge  of  its  effects.  The  intelligent 
observance  of  natural  laws  suffices  to  prevent  the 
greater  number  of  those  physical  ills  and  misfor- 
tunes of  which  mankind  complain,  and  which  they 
are  too  apt  to  lay  at  the  door  of  Providence. 
Moderation  in  living  secures  health ;  moderation  in 
the  pursuit  of  your  objects  insures  security  against 
serious  losses  and  disappointments.  To  do  your 
duty  to  others  is  to  seize  on  the  greatest  source  of 
happiness  attainable  here. 

Good  health  is  a  result  of  moderate  living.  Be 
moderate  in  all  things;  that  insures  not  merely  a 
healthy  body  but  a  clear  spirit.  It  is  the  immod- 
erate and  selfish  pursuit  of  fortune,  ambition,  amuse- 
ment, which  depraves  the  man  physically,  and  also 
spiritually.  It  puts  him  out  of  perspective  with 
the  real  world ;  he  loses  the  right  relations  and  pro- 
portions of  things,  and  flings  away  the  large  future 
for  the  petty  present.  In  that  immoderate  pursuit 
of  any  object  the  blood  is  heated,  the  grosser,  the 
merely  animal  part  of  us  becomes  unduly  powerful, 
and  gains  the  upper  hand.  I  could  not  discover  a 
drunkard  in  the  records  of  the  life-long  moderate 
drinkers  of  beer  and  wine  in  the  German  commu- 
nistic societies  in  this  country ;  and  I  could  not  help 

12 


178  GOD  AND  THE  FUTURE  LIFE. 

but  attribute  so  singular  a  fact  to  their  habitual 
moderation  in  life,  their  freedom  from  anxious  cares 
about  careers,  fortunes,  fashions,  and  personal  am- 
bitions. Long  life,  and  a  healthful  long  life,  may  or 
may  not  be  desirable ;  but  that  it  is  easily  attainable 
is  sufficiently  shown  by  the  mortuary  statistics  of  all 
our  communistic  societies. 

No  selfish  living  is  healthful  or  natural.  It  is 
what  you  do  for  others  that  is  useful  to  yourself, 
and  that  only.  It  is  as  you  serve  your  fellow-men, 
and  strive  to  make  the  lives  of  others  happier  and 
better,  that  you  attain  happiness  and  a  healthful 
spirit  for  yourself.  Self-sacrifice  is  the  essential  of 
Christian  life,  and  the  means  to  any  satisfactory  life 
either  here  or  beyond.  Teach  yourself  early  to  take 
interest  in  the  lives  of  others.  Give  some  part  of 
your  time  to  the  benefit  of  your  fellows ;  it  is  the 
best  "investment"  you  can  make,  for  it  will  not 
only  procure  you  the  love  of  others,  but  it  will 
broaden  the  foundations  of  your  own  life.  No  one 
is  so  humble  or  so  poor  that  he  cannot  thus  give  a 
part  of  himself  for  the  benefit  of  his  fellow-men ;  if 
no  more,  his  example  of  cheerful  industry,  modera- 
tion in  living,  thoroughness  of  work,  honesty,  and 
loving  kindness,  if  he  is  the  least  in  the  community, 
gradually  permeates  it  with  his  own  spirit,  as  the 
fragrance  of  violets  imperceptibly  fills  a  room.  Un- 


CONDUCT   OF   LIFE.  179 

obtrusive  well-doing  is,  perhaps,  the  greatest  influ- 
ence for  good  in  any  community.  A  good  mechanic 
or  artisan — thorough,  intelligent,  kind,  and  cheerful 
— no  matter  how  apparently  inconspicuous  his  place 
in  the  community,  is  likely  to  be  the  most  potent 
man  for  good  in  his  circle ;  his  life  is  of  more  solid 
and  enduring  value  to  the  men  and  women  among 
whom  he  lives  than  those  of  fifty  or  a  hundred 
"  men  of  wealth  and  influence,"  so  called. 

No  merely  selfish  living  is  healthful  for  either 
the  spirit  or  the  body.  But  to  unselfish  living  goes 
constant  and  courageous  self-denial,  and  the  culti- 
vation of  a  spirit  of  independence.  To  do  right 
against  temporary  aberrations  of  public  opinion,  or 
against  the  fixed  prejudices  of  those  among  whom 
you  live ;  to  live  your  own  life  contentedly,  and  re- 
fuse to  follow  the  general  example;  to  refuse  to 
put  out  your  hand  for  the  things  regarded  as  de- 
sirable and  enviable  by  the  mass;  to  practise  mod- 
eration in  the  midst  of  the  general  hurly-burly,  and 
prefer  your  own  objects  to  those  of  the  multitude 
— this  kind  of  living  is  not  easy ;  but  it  is  the  only 
way  of  life  to  him  who  has  a  just  value  for  life 
at  all. 

You  need  hope  for  no  really  good  thing  without 
labor.  Nothing  for  nothing  is  a  law  which  applies 
to  all  parts  of  our  lives :  do  not  try  to  evade  it,  for 


180  GOD  AND  THE  FUTURE  LIFE. 

you  cannot.  Neither  knowledge  nor  good-fortune, 
neither  right  living  nor  enjoyment,  nothing  worth 
having  comes  easily,  or  without  persistent  labor  and 
self-denial.  There  are  no  exceptions  to  this  law; 
there  is  no  such  thing  as  good-luck.  The  unlucky 
man  has  lacked  persistence,  or  tact,  or  concentration 
of  purpose :  but  no  one  has  these  qualities  without 
having  laboriously  acquired  and  strengthened  them. 

Pursue  your  aim  with  industry  and  intelligence, 
therefore ;  expect  nothing  of  fortune.  But  examine 
your  plans  of  life  to  see  if  they  really  tend  to  good ; 
if  in  their  accomplishment  you  will  benefit  others 
as  "well  as  yourself.  Try  to  foresee  what  effect  the 
achievement  of  your  ends,  and  your  labors  for  that 
purpose,  are  likely  to  have  upon  your  spiritual  life. 
Many  men  have  believed  that  it  is  possible  to  push 
one's  purposes  too  forcibly,  and  that  success  may 
become  a  great  curse;  and  for  the  proof  that  this 
is  true  you  need  not  go  far  to  seek  in  any  com- 
munity, for  the  examples  are  but  too  abundant  of 
men  who  have  gained  wealth  at  the  cost  of  health, 
or  power  at  the  cost  of  character. 

Don't  speculate.  It  is  an  attempt  to  get  some- 
thing for  nothing;  and  if  it  does  not  fail  immedi- 
ately, so  much  the  worse  for  you,  for  it  is  certain 
to  be  a  calamity  to  you.  Not  only  is  easy  got  easy 
spent,  but,  what  is  of  more  importance,  what  is  got 


CONDUCT  OF   LIFE.  181 

in  these  ways  does  not  train  you  in  the  getting  it ; 
and  wealth  is  so  dangerous  a  possession,  even  to  the 
wisest  and  most  moderate  men,  that  we  need  all  the 
training  we  can  get  in  the  labors  and  sacrifices  by 
which  we  may  legitimately  accumulate  even  a  small 
surplus,  to  enable  us  to  use  it  with  only  a  very  small 
degree  of  wisdom  and  safety  to  ourselves,  and  benefit 
to  those  about  us. 

Prosperity  is  a  great  temptation  even  to  good 
men.  Jesus  was  not  wrong  when  He  declared  how 
hard  it  is  for  a  rich  man  to  enter  the  kingdom  of 
Heaven ;  meaning,  of  course,  to  fit  himself  for  that 
state.  If  you  carefully  look  about  you,  you  will 
conclude  that  perhaps  the  industrious  poor  are  God's 
favorites. 

The  men  who  are  .engaged  in  the  mere  pursuit 
of  wealth,  or  of  any  other  selfish  object,  become 
narrowed  in  their  views  and  grasp;  their  general 
judgment  is  distorted,  weakened,  as  their  particular 
aim  engrosses  them  more ;  and  the  mere  pursuit  of 
wealth,  I  would  like  you  to  believe,  is  one  of  the 
lowest,  le"ast  satisfying,  and  least  elevating  forms 
which  human  exertion  takes. 

Not  only  is  the  pursuit  of  wealth  an  injury  to 
your  spirit  and  intelligence,  but  it  is,  in  the  major- 
ity  of  cases,  an  injury  to  others.  Few  men  attain 
great  wealth,  or  keep  it,  without  oppressing,  or,  at 


182  GOD   AND  THE   FUTURE   LIFE. 

the  least,  lessening  the  opportunities  and  narrowing 
the  lives  of  some  others.  Great  possessions  are  very 
apt  to  separate  their  owners  from  those  who  serve 
them,  and,  in  a  degree,  from  mankind.  Their  sym- 
pathies are  narrowed  as  the  sense  of  power  begotten 
by  wealth  increases. 

"Ill  fares  the  land,  to  hastening  ills  a  prey, 
Where  wealth  accumulates,  and  men  decay," 

is  sound  economy  as  well  as  good  poetry.  Hence, 
prefer  rather  to  live  among  the  poor  than  the  rich. 
A  community  without  industrious  working-men,  but 
made  up  entirely,  or  mainly,  of  the  wealthy  and 
their  dependents,  is  the  poorest  company  you  can 
get  into. 

Avoid  every  pursuit  which  will  separate  either 
your  interests  or  your  life  from  the  interests  of  the 
mass  of  the  community. 

Plan  your  own  life.  Do  not  suffer  yourself  to  be 
bullied  by  society  or  the  general  opinion  of  your 
friends.  If  you  want  very  much  to  do  something, 
and  it  is  right  and  honest,  go  ahead  and  do  it.  You 
may  fail  at  it ;  you  may  have  judged  unwisely ;  but 
at  any  rate  you  will  have  strengthened  your  will ; 
you  will  have  been  yourself,  and  not  the  creature  of 
other  people's  advice ;  and  you  will  have  earned  in 
experience  more  than  money's  worth. 


CONDUCT  OF  LIFE.  183 

This  does  not  mean  that  you  are  selfishly  to  avoid 
or  reject  your  duty  to  others,  rightfully  dependent 
on  you.  It  may  be  your  part  to  deny  yourself  the 
gratification  of  even  a  very  strong  impulse  towards 
a  favorite  career  or  occupation  —  to  give  up  your 
own  will  and  wishes,  for  the  sake  of  those  dependent 
on  you.  Do  that  with  a  cheerful  and  manly  spirit ; 
count  yourself  the  happier,  as  you  will  be  the  better 
man,  for  having  your  duty  so  plainly  marked  out  for 
you. 

With  men  as  with  machines  it  is  never  economi- 
cal to  work  up  to  the  full  power.  It  is  a  strain  to 
do  so.  Hence  it  is  an  unwise  though  a  common 
ambition  which  carries  men  into  work  which  they 
can  do  only  with  difficulty.  Seek  a  career  where 
you  can  do  your  best  easily.  It  is  better  that  the 
man  should  be  too  big  for  the  place  than  the  place 
for  the  man.  Better,  in  part,  because  he  needs  lei- 
sure ;  he  ought  to  be  many-sided  ;  he  cannot  hope  to 
know  any  one  thing  well  unless  he  has  had  leisure 
and  desire  to  know  many  others. 

Try,  however,  to  learn  some  one  thing  thoroughly. 
No  matter  what  it  is,  you  will  find  that  when  you 
do  know  that  one  thing  thoroughly,  you  will  have  a 
satisfactory  knowledge  of  many  others.  All  knowl- 
edge is  closely  inter-related.  The  mischief  is  that  so 
many  people  only  "  know  a  little  something." 


184:  GOD  AND  THE  FUTURE  LIFE. 

Thoroughness  of  work  is  honesty,  and  honesty  is 
the  best  policy  even  for  this  life.  If  God  had  made 
it  otherwise.  He  would  have  introduced  constant  con- 
fusion into  our  lives.  Hence,  what  you  do,  do  with 
a  will;  put  your  best  thought  and  skill  into  your 
work,  and  try  early  to  acquire  the  habit  of  doing 
this.  It  is  not  easy  to  fix  yourself  in  that,  but  noth- 
ing is  more  worth  your  while.  The  cheapest  thing 
you  can  do  is  to  pay  your  debts  and  do  good  work. 
Your  best  is  what  you  owe  to  the  world,  and  to 
yourself  even  more,  no  matter  how  humble  the  work 
may  be. 

Therefore,  value  your  work  for  the  work's  sake, 
and  not  for  the  reward  or  success  it  is  to  bring  you. 
The  laborer  is  worthy  of  his  hire,  but  he  is  a  poor 
creature  if  he  works  only  for  the  wages  he  is  to  get ; 
and  he  will  never  do  good  work  on  that  condition 
alone.  A  man,  if  he  is  really  a  man,  values  and  hon- 
ors his  work,  takes  pride  in  it,  and  does  it  well  and 
thoroughly  for  its  own  sake,  and  for  his  own  sake, 
and  not  for  the  wages.  Hence,  a  good  mechanic,  or 
farmer,  is  always  an  intelligent  man — very  often  the 
most  intelligent  and  the  wisest  man  in  the  commu- 
nity. He  has  found  it  needful  for  his  own  satisfac- 
tion to  know  one  thing  thoroughly ;  and  to  do  that 
he  has  necessarily  to  know  something  of  a  good 
many  others.  No  kind  of  work  is  so  low  that  this 


CONDUCT   OF   LIFE.  185 

is  not  true  of  it.  I  knew  a  gardener's  laborer  who 
earned  his  daily  bread  with  a  spade,  but  who  had 
made  himself  a  good  florist,  and  no  mean  botanist. 

Nor  is  any  work  so  high  in  the  scale  but  that  he 
who  does  it  for  the  reward  alone,  be  this  money, 
or  place,  or  power,  will  become  a  narrow  and  stupid 
soul. 


186  GOD  AND  THE  FUTURE  LIFE. 


XVII. 

CONDUCT   OF  LIFE   (Continued). 

TAKE  care  to  do  all  in  the  spirit  of  love  and  good- 
will to  your  fellow-men:  whatever  is  done  in  the 
spirit  of  hatred,  malice,  or  envy  must  fail.  It  can- 
not and  does  not  succeed  in  the  long-run,  and  it  will 
surely  injure  him  who  does  it. 

Teach  yourself  to  despise  ambition ;  it  is  one  of 
the  meanest  of  the  passions.  Human  society  needs 
all  the  help  it  can  get  from  its  bravest  and  ablest 
members;  if  you  have  somewhat  of  capacity  for 
good,  do  not  be  impatient  or  fearful  lest  the  world 
should  not  discover  it.  Do  your  work,  and  train 
yourself  to  be  content  with  that. 

This  is  not  easy,  for  young  people  hunger  for  rec- 
ognition ;  but  it  is  your  only  wise  and  manly  course. 
If  you  have  ability  you  will  be  found  out,  never 
fear.  Men  say  of  a  young  fellow  that  he  is  "  ambi- 
tious," and  the  foolish  world  counts  it  a  merit  in 
him ;  and  he  presently,  under  this  vulgar  stimulus, 
thinks  it  legitimate  and  even  honorable  to  push  his 
own  fortunes ;  comes  to  regard  success  as  the  main 


CONDUCT  OF  LIFE.  187 

object,  and  thinks  he  has  done  well  when,  by  dint 
of  vigorous  elbowing  and  scheming  he  has  contrived 
to  push  himself  into  a  place  much  too  big  for  him, 
where  he  rattles  around  like  a  pea  in  a  tin  pot. 

Personal  success  is  a  matter  of  very  minor  conse- 
quence. The  success  of  a  noble  cause,  of  a  great 
and  beneficent  idea — that  is  another  thing ;  but  even 
that  its  supporters  can  but  rarely  hope  to  see  victo- 
rious. It  is  theirs,  as  true  men  feel,  to  do  what 
they  can,  to  suffer  such  obloquy  as  such  men  are 
pretty  sure  to  encounter  in  a  good  cause,  and  to  be 
content  with  the  consciousness  that  they  have  done 
their  duty.  Nor  is  it  too  much  to  say  that,  what- 
ever they  may  suffer,  they  have  their  sufficient  re- 
ward in  the  development  and  training  of  their  own 
souls,  which  those  receive  who  rightly  and  wisely, 
not  in  hatred  or  fanatically,  but  with  a  loving  spirit, 
combat  error,  or  uphold  the  truth  against  oppression. 

Whether  you  win  or  not  is  not  the  real  question, 
but  whether  you  -have  lived  unselfishly  and  done 
your  best  for  your  fellow-men  in  that  place,  how- 
ever humble,  in  which  you  are  cast. 

"Magnify  your  office,"  which  means  that  you 
shall  think  highly  of  your  work.  I  know  an  errand- 
man  who  has  been  the  most  faithful  and  intelligent 
of  errand-men  for  thirty  years.  I  know  no  one  who 
is  prouder,  or  more  justly  proud  of  his  work ;  and  I 


188  GOD  AND  THE  FUTURE  LIFE. 

have  known  Presidents  and  cabinet  ministers  who 
were  far  less  worthy  of  respect,  and,  in  fact,  far  less 
respected  than  this  humble  servitor,  who  does  his 
daily  drudgery  with  the  pride  and  enthusiasm  of  a 
king. 

It  may  seem  to  you  a  hard  saying,  but  it  is  never- 
theless true,  that  only  that  wealth  or  that  fame 
which  comes  to  you  without  your  own  seeking  can 
possibly  be  useful  to  you,  or  even  in  any  high  sense 
creditable  to  you.  No  good  work  perishes  or  re- 
mains unknown.  You  will  always  receive  all  the 
fame  and  credit  in  the  world  to  which  your  ability 
and  work  entitle  you ;  and  if  you  should  not,  so 
much  the  better.  The  world  will  owe  you  some- 
thing, and  of  that  you  may  think  with  just  pride — 
but  not  with  discontent. 

Do  not,  therefore,  aim  to  be  rich,  or  to  be  famous, 
or  to  be  in  high  places,  or  to  be  fashionable,  or  a 
favorite  in  what  is  called  society  Aim  to  be  just, 
cheerful,  patient,  hopeful,  and  to  do  your  duty  well 
towards  others. 

Do  not  allow  yourself  to  become  a  mere  machine. 
In  the  present  condition  of  what  we  call  civilization  it 
is  difficult  to  avoid  this.  The  whole  tendency  of  our 
social  arrangements  is  more  and  more  to  divide  the 
community  into  two  unequal  parts — the  few  capital- 
ists, employers,  and  the  multitude  who  are  their  ser- 


CONDUCT  OF  LIFE.  189 

vants.  Now,  "  service  is  honorable ;"  but  the  servant 
should  be  something  more  than  that.  He  should 
strive  to  save  some  part  of  his  life  for  himself. 
You  may  read  of  men  who  have  passed  a  long  life 
in  making,  not  pins,  but  only  the  heads  of  pins. 
God,  who  is  very  good,  has  so  contrived  the  spirit- 
ual part  of  us,  that  even  men  and  women  thus  un- 
fortunately placed  may  be  good  and  truly  heavenly- 
minded.  But,  if  you  can,  you  are  entitled  to  choose 
a  better  part  in  life  for  yourself ;  and  if  you  are  to 
do  no  more  than  make  pin-heads,  try,  first,  to  do  that 
in  the  very  best  way  possible ;  and,  second,  reserve, 
if  you  can,  a  small  part  of  your  life  for  something 
else  and  better — some  line  of  intelligent  thought  and 
study — and  remember  that  a  lawyer  who  knows  or 
cares  about  nothing  but  his  cases,  or  a  merchant 
who  thinks  only  of  his  ventures  and  ledgers,  these 
are  even  worse  off  than  the  men  who  contentedly 
spend  their  lives  in  making  pin -heads.  They  be- 
come narrowed  and  dwarfed,  and  the  more  easily  if 
they  are  prosperous  and  comfortable.  Too  often 
such  men  become  like  swine,  glorying  in  the  admi- 
rable arrangement  and  comfort  of  their  sty. 

I  do  not  like  to  see  young  people  pick  out  easy 
places  for  themselves.  Comfort  and  ease  may  be 
necessary  to  the  aged  and  feeble-bodied,  but  youth 
ought  to  hold  them  in  healthful  contempt,  and  pre- 


190  GOD   AND  THE  FUTURE  LIFE. 

fer  a  task  or  career  which  involves  some  hardship 
and  self -denial.  In  that  way  they  become  men; 
their  wills  are  braced,  their  faculties  trained,  their  - 
good  habits  fixed,  their  intellects  brightened.  Re- 
sist, therefore,  the  temptation  to  barter  your  inde- 
pendence for  mere  physical  ease  or  pleasant  social 
surroundings.  Choose,  rather,  if  you  are  free  to 
choose,  a  struggle  of  your  own  with  the  world.  It 
is  good  and  fit  that  youth  should  be  enterprising 
and  adventurous. 

Prefer  to  learn  several  things,  and  not  one  only. 
Do  not  be  afraid  of  hardship  and  solitude :  by  ex- 
perience of  these  men  become  masters  of  them- 
selves ;  they  learn  how  to  get  on  with  men ;  how  to 
"  fall  on  their  feet,"  as  the  saying  goes ;  how  to  get 
good  out  of  even  mishaps  and  failures;  they  make 
themselves  truly  independent,  not  only  of  men  but 
of  fortune.  Herodotus  has  a  fine  passage  about  the 
ancient  Persians,  to  whom,  when  they  proposed  to 
leave  their  own  small  and  rugged  domain,  to  possess 
a  wider  and  richer,  Cyrus  gave  this  warning :  "  To 
prepare  thenceforth,  not  to  rule,  but  to  be  ruled 
over,  for  that  delicate  men  spring  from  delicate 
countries,  and  it  is  not  given  to  the  same  land  to 
produce  excellent  fruits  and  men  -valiant  in  war. 
So  that" — continues  the  old  historian — "the  Per- 
sians, perceiving  their  error,  withdrew,  and  yielded 


CONDUCT  OF  LIFE.  191 

to  the  opinion  of  Cyrus;  and  they  chose  rather  to 
live  in  a  barren  country  and  command,  than  to  cul- 
tivate fertile  plains  and  ~be  the  slaves  of  others" 

I  have  been  told  that  when  Thoreau  was  a  young 
man  he  made  lead-pencils,  and  made  them  very  well. 
But  one  day  he  gave  it  up.  His  friends  were 
amazed ;  he  was  doing  well,  and  likely  to  be  pros- 
perous ;  he  made  the  best  kind  of  pencils,  and  they 
told  him  he  ought  by  all  means  to  go  on.  But  he 
replied,  "  I  have  now  made  just  as  good  pencils  as 
I  ever  can  make.  I  have  done  that  thing  as  well 
as  it  is  possible  for  me  to  do  it;  hence,  it  is  time 
for  me  to  stop  that  and  go  at  something  else."  I 
think  he  was  right.  Being  free  of  hand,  having  no 
one  depending  on  his  labors,  he  had  not  only  a  right 
to  stop  what  had  become  a  mere  mechanical  drudg- 
ery, but  it  was  his  duty  to  himself  to  do  so. 

Observe,  if  he  had  had  wife  and  children  or  other 
helpless  ones  justly  depending  on  him,  his  duty 
would  have  been  to  go  on  patiently  and  honestly 
making  lead-pencils.  I  knew  once  a  painter  who, 
if  he  had  had  leisure,  would  have  become  famous ; 
some  of  his  works  are  justly  admired,  and  rank  very 
high.  But  he  had  a  wife  and  numerous  family ;  to 
have  cultivated  his  art  would  have  been  to  expose 
them  to  want,  or  at  least  to  deprivation  of  com- 
forts, and  being  a  good  man,  he  deliberately  gave 


192  GOD  AND  THE   FUTURE   LIFE. 

up  the  work  and  career  in  which  he  might  have 
won  fame,  and  gave  his  life  contentedly  to  bread- 
and-butter  labors  for  those  he  loved  and  wras  bound 
to  cherish.  On  the  whole,  he  was  a  nobler  man 
than  Thoreau. 

Men  are  like  cabbages,  which,  as  market  gardeners 
will  tell  you,  grow  the  stronger  for  being  several 
times  transplanted.  In  Germany,  in  former  times, 
a  young  mechanic  out  of  his  apprenticeship  was 
compelled  to  go  forth  into  the  world  with  his  tools, 
and  pass  two  or  three  years  in  foreign  parts.  Thus, 
it  was  rightly  held,  he  became  the  abler  mechanic 
and  the  better  citizen.  In  his  travels  he  acquired 
information ;  he  was  forced  to  match  himself  against 
other  men  in  his  calling,  in  order  to  earn  his  bread 
and  the  expenses  of  his  journey ;  and  this  experience 
tended  to  make  him  a  more  civilized  creature. 

Wise  parents  begin  early  to  form  in  their  chil- 
dren a  habit  and  love  of  reading,  which  should  be 
but  a  stepping-stone  to  a  love  of  knowledge.  In 
these  days,  when  even  college  life  is  full  of  bustle 
and  striving  and  cramming  and  without  proper  lei- 
sure, to  fix  this  habit  early  is  of  the  greatest  impor- 
tance ;  for  a  genuine  love  of  knowledge  is  hardly  to 
be  acquired  under  the  pressure  of  a  higher  school, 
and  we  see  constantly  young  men  graduated  and 
entering  the  turmoil  of  business  or  professional  life, 


CONDUCT   OF   LIFE.  193 

content  with  what  they  have  been  forced  to  get  by 
rote  in  the  schools,  and  without  that  true  resource 
and  solace  which  he  has  whose  mind  is  awakened, 
and  eager  to  secure  and  apply  some  leisure  time  to 
explore  new  fields  of  science  and  thought. 

But  choose  your  books  carefully.  They  are  to  be 
friends — do  not  carelessly  take  enemies  into  these 
places.  Take  care  what  you  suffer  to  drop  into 
your  memory.  It  is  hard  to  forget,  and,  alas !  the 
vile  and  mean  sticks  to  our  memories  more  readily 
than  the  noble  or  good. 

Whatever  business  or  calling  you  are  engaged  in 
as  your  bread-and-butter  work,  remember  that,  use- 
ful as  this  is,  you  are  right  to  regard  it  as  your 
enemy ;  keep  a  part  of  your  life  free  from  this  and 
for  yourself ;  and  value  success  less  because  it  is  to 
give  you  wealth  or  luxury,  than  because  it  may 
yield  you  some  leisure  to  devote  to  other  things 
than  your  calling  and  to  higher  ones. 

Men,  like  some  trees,  begin  to  die  at  the  top. 
Make  an  intelligent  use  of  your  brains,  in  order  to 
secure  health  and  long  life.  Two  classes  of  men  are 
noted  for  longevity  —  slaves,  and  students  of  large 
and  broad  intelligence ;  the  first  because  they  have 
been  constrained  to  simple  and  very  regular  living 
in  the  open  air,  and  without  great  anxieties.  The 
others  because  it  is  the  brain  rightly  and  constantly 

13 


194  GOD    AND   THE   FUTURE   LIFE. 

used  wliicli  keeps  the  body  in  order,  and  thus  pro- 
longs life. 

You  can  never  be  too  old  to  learn ;  and  there  is 
probably  no  better  time  to  go  to  school  than  after 
fifty. 

Count  it  a  misfortune,  therefore,  if  your  bread- 
and-butter  work  takes  up  all  your  time  and  strength, 
and  see  if  by  better  management  or  a  judicious  econ- 
omy in  expense  you  cannot  redeem  some  part  of 
your  life  from  this  thraldom.  Every  man  needs  to 
be  sometimes  alone.  This  is. necessary  in  order  that 
you  shall  be  able  to  "  take  stock  of  yourself,"  con- 
sider your  life,  get  time  for  a  look  ahead ;  and  that 
you  shall  not  live  in  your  higher  and  spiritual  life 
from  hand  to  mouth.  Without  such  leisure  and  sol- 
itude we  lose  the  true  perspective ;  the  present  as- 
sumes undue  and  factitious  importance,  and  hides 
from  us  the  future,  as  a  high  fence  conceals  a  land* 
scape.  What  you  need  is  to  maintain  a  clear  out- 
look, and  this  for  your  present  well-being,  but  even 
more  for  its  bearing  on  the  future  life.  An  effec- 
tive man  is  one  who  sees  things  as  they  are ;  but  how 
can  you  do  this  if  you  see  only  a  part  ? 

Here  you  will  see  the  importance  of  that  day  of 
rest  which  is  called  "  the  Christian  Sabbath."  Pro- 
testing against  the  empty  formalities  with  which  the 
Pharisees  had  filled  up  this  day,  J  esus  said,  "  The 


CONDUCT  OF  LIFE.  195 

Sabbath  is  made  for  man,  not  man  for  the  Sabbath." 
On  this  day  we  may  and  ought  to  drop  our  cares, 
our  plans,  and  strivings,  and  take  time  to  rest  not 
only  the  body,  but  the  mind  and  heart.  It  is  the 
day  on  which  to  reflect,  to  consider  our  lives  and 
their  tendency,  our  habits  and  our  future.  ~No  one 
who  labors  but  is  grateful  for  this  day.  No  one  can 
abuse  it  by  laboring  on  it,  without  injury  to  his  body 
as  well  as  his  spirit.  Even  the  animals  are  the  bet- 
ter able  for  their  work  if  they  have  this  day  exempt 
from  labor;  so  that  the  commandment  which  for- 
bids the  use  of  beasts  of  burden  on  that  day  is — 
as  are  all  the  commands  of  God — entirely  reason- 
able, and,  to  use  a  phrase  of  these  days,  "sound 
political  economy."  Nor  can  you  misuse  this  day 
of  rest  for  vain  or  frivolous  purposes  without  injury 
to  your  spiritual  nature,  which  needs  rest,  quiet, 
peace,  relaxation,  as  much  as  your  body. 

The  plan  of  life  which  I  have  mapped  out  will 
seem  to  you,  perhaps,  to  require  a  good  deal  of  self- 
denial.  Yet  according  to  this  plan  the  wisest  and 
best  of  our  race  have  lived.  Cultivate  a  taste  for 
poverty.  Plain  living  breeds  sound  thinking.  But 
the  whole  tendency  of  the  present  time  is  against 
plain  living,  and  to  be  contented  with  little  has 
come  to  be  counted  a  vice.  Even  the  humblest  are 
tempted  to  what  seems  to  them  luxurious  living; 


196  GOD   AND  THE   FUTURE   LIFE. 

and  because  over  the  greater  part  of  Christendom  it 
is  now  conceded  that  "all  men  are  born  free  and 
equal,"  therefore  it  is  held  that  all  men  and  women, 
to  be  respectable,  must  dress  and  live  alike  —  as 
though  that  were  needed  to  assert  their  equality  of 
rights.  The  universal  rule  is  to  work  harder,  so  as 
to  spend  more  prodigally.  But  the  wise  man  knows 
that  he  had  better  spend  less  and  keep  some  leisure 
for  himself ;  for  thought,  study,  and  healthful  recrea- 
tion. F.  W.  Newman  wrote  wisely :  "  To  count  but  few 
things  necessary  is  the  foundation  of  many  virtues." 

Do  not,  therefore,  clutter  your  life  with  many  use- 
less things.  It  is  a  habit  which  grows.  Some  people 
are  no  better  than  the  slaves  of  old  china  or  silver ; 
and  many  houses  are  only  museums  on  a  small  scale, 
whose  owners  and  inhabitants  are  the  least  interest' 
ing  of  the  contents,  and  often  the  least  thought  of. 
A  love  of  simple  pleasures  is  a  small  fortune  to  him 
who  has  it.  They  are  the  only  lasting  ones. 

Hence,  the  country  is  to  be  preferred  to  the  city. 
Cities  are  for  diversion,  for  change,  for  the  conven- 
ience of  special  studies ;  but  sensible  men  live  in  the 
country.  There  you  become  hardy,  you  gain  that 
knowledge  which  is,  on  the  whole,  best  worth  know- 
ing— of  trees,  flowers,  animals,  and  nature  in  general. 
Children  learn  early,  in  the  care  and  subduing  of 
animals,  in  training  a  dog  or  breaking  a  horse,  to  be 


CONDUCT   OF   LIFE.  197 

humane  and  to  control  their  own  tempers.  Country 
employments  and  amusements  bring  health  and  a 
strong  and  well-directed  will.  And  besides  this,  in 
country  living  simple  habits  are  more  easily  main- 
tained. The  sight  is  not  tempted  by  the  multifari- 
ous objects  of  city  shops,  whose  display  leads  men 
and  women  and  even  children  to  be  discontented 
and  envious,  and  to  regard  as  necessaries  of  life  what 
are  really  vast  aggregations  of  superfluities.  I  knew 
some  little  girls  brought  up  in  the  country  to  whom 
a  stick  doll  was  a  source  of  as  great  happiness  as  the 
most  magnificent  satin-clad  wax  doll  to  a  city  child, 
and  they  w^ere  the  happier  and  more  healthful  in 
body  and  mind,  because  their  desires  had  not  been 
excited  by  the  sight  of  the  city  Christmas  shops. 

Moreover,  by  country  living  you  prepare  constant 
and  invaluable  resources  for  your  old  age.  The  city 
man  grows  helpless  as  the  sere  and  yellow  leaf  of 
life  comes  on.  He  has  become  dependent  on  the  ex- 
citements of  society,  and  as  his  contemporaries  die, 
or  are  scattered,  he  grows  lonely.  His  house,  fur- 
nished as  splendidly  as  may  be,  he  knows  so  well 
that  its  narrow  limits  bore  him.  He  has  no  resource 
but  business,  and  seeks  to  drown  his  loneliness  in 
the  excitement  of  adding  to  his  fortune.  His  even- 
ings are  his  secret  terror.  Why,  do  you  suppose,  are 
clubs,  theatres,  and  other  places  of  amusement  in 


198  GOD   AND   THE   FUTURE   LIFE. 

great  cities  so  crowded  ?  Because  the  brilliant  light- 
ing, the  crowded  houses,  the  varied  colors  are  a  re- 
lief from  the  dull  monotony  of  homes  where  the  in- 
habitants fear  to  face  themselves,  and  find  no  com- 
pany so  dull  as  their  own.  As  we  advance  in  years 
there  is  a  vigorous  struggle  of  the  body  to  get  the 
upper-hand,  and  the  mischief  of  city  life  is,  that  it 
encourages  this  by  the  ease,  comfort,  convenience, 
gross  feeding,  and  late  hours  to  which  it  invites,  and 
which  all  tend  to  make  our  spirits  sluggish  and  in- 
ert. In  California  I  knew  an  old  Spaniard  who,  at 
sixty -seven,  rode  a  hundred  miles  on  horseback  in 
a  day  and  thought  little  of  it;  and  I  have  often 
admired  the  simple,  manly  habits  of  the  Spanish 
rancheros,  who  passed  the  day  contentedly  on  horse- 
back, with  a  little  pinola  or  parched  wheat,  a  lump 
of  sugar,  a  cup  of  water,  and  a  cigarette  for  their 
mid-day  meal,  and  slept  comfortably  on  the  ground 
wrapped  in  a  blanket,  and  with  the  saddle  for  a 
pillow. 

You  may  object  that  modern  civilization  has  made 
this  denial  of  bodily  comforts  and  luxuries  needless  ; 
pretty  things  are  nearly  as  cheap  as  ugly  ones  in 
these  days;  and  why  should  you  sleep  on  a  hard 
bed  when  you  can  just  as  well  have  a  soft  one? 
But  the  answer  is,  that  you  are  the  less  dependent 
on  the  mutabilities  of  fortune,  the  less  a  slave  of  the 


CONDUCT  OF  LIFE.  199 

will  of  others,  the  more  truly  a  free  man,  as  you 
have  curbed  and  trained  your  body,  and  made  it 
hardy  and  easily  obedient  to  your  higher  will. 

If  you  want  to  achieve  any  object  here,  it  is  of 
the  first  importance  to  you  to  live.  Merely  to  live 
makes  up  a  considerable  part  of  every  worldly  suc- 
cess ;  in  some  careers  we  see  that  this  has  been  the 
greatest  part  of  it.  Few  men  achieve  anything  val- 
uable or  important  before  forty ;  many  do  not  even 
begin  a  career  before  then ;  and  some,  like  Hum- 
boldt,  Yon  Moltke,  and  George  Bancroft,  retain  their 
intellectual  activity  for  forty  and  even  fifty  years 
longer.  Such  men  you  will  find  have  maintained 
all  their  lives  simple  and  regular  habits.  But  from 
forty  to  seventy  is  the  life  almost  of  a  generation  of 
men,  and  he  who  has  kept  his  body  as  his  servant, 
or  useful  machine,  may  in  that  long  period  achieve 
almost  anything  he  sets  his  mind  to. 

When,  however,  the  body  has  been  pampered  and 
indulged,  intellectual  activity,  judgment,  and  will  de- 
cline rapidly  after  fifty ;  it  is  then  mainly  the  phys- 
ical man  who  continues  to  exist,  and  to  make  more 
and  more  imperative  demands  on  the  spiritual  part, 
warping  the  judgment,  and  controlling  the  will  and 
energy  that  remain  to  low  and  often  base  ends. 

Begin  early,  therefore,  to  deny  your  body ;  so  you 
may  hope  to  retain  all  your  life  thai  supremacy  of 


200  GOD  AND  THE   FUTURE   LIFE. 

the  intellectual  over  the  mere  physical  part  which 
alone  makes  life  valuable  or  important.  Eat  moder- 
ately, sleep  enough,  and  in  as  pure  air  as  possible ;  be 
careful  to  contract  no  physical  habits  whatever — for 
that  is  to  make  yourself  subject  to  your  meaner  part, 
the  body,  which  becomes  an  intolerable  and  tyran- 
nical master  when  once  it  gets  the  upper-hand,  even 
in  small  things.  The  force  of  habit  is  very  great, 
and  bad  habits  become  fixed  with  astonishing  quick- 
ness. A  great  part  of  life  consists  in  acquiring  good 
and  useful  habits,  and  in  avoiding  and  resisting  the 
force  of  bad. 

When  we  subdue  to  our  will,  or  "  break,"  as  it  is 
called,  a  colt  or  a  young  dog,  what  we  really  do  is 
to  habituate  it  to  particular  duties  or  exercises.  The 
dog  is  taught  that,  when  he  hears  certain  words  of 
command,  he  must  at  once  perform  certain  tricks ; 
the  colt  is  accustomed  to  the  bridle,  the  saddle,  or 
the  harness,  and  to  the  habit  of  going  at  a  certain 
gait  and  none  other  when  he  has  these  upon  him ; 
and  the  habit  of  doing  certain  things  under  given 
circumstances  soon  becomes  fixed,  and  a  ruling  force 
in  the  animal,  so  that  an  old  war-horse,  long  since 
discharged  and  turned  to  peaceful  uses,  pricks  up 
his  ears  at  the  sound  of  the  bugle,  and  strives  to 
find  his  accustomed  place  in  the  cavalry  troop.  In 
men,  also,  the  force  of  habit  is  strong ;  but  as  our 


CONDUCT  OF  LIFE.  201 

lives  are  more  various,  and  our  intelligence  of  a 
quite  different  order,  from  that  of  the  lower  animals, 
and  as  our  wills  are  free,  so  good  habits  at  least  sit 
more  lightly,  and  we  need  to  exercise  greater  care 
to  maintain  them.  The  habit  of  regular  and  con- 
tinued labor,  for  instance,  is  more  difficult  for  a 
young  person  to  acquire  than  for  a  horse.  A  great 
many  men  and  women  never  thoroughly  acquire  it, 
but  go  through  life  half  doing  many  things,  begin- 
ning a  new  project  and  leaving  it  unfinished  for 
another,  and  inefficient  simply  because  they  have  not 
the  habit  of  systematically  completing  one  piece  of 
work  before  they  begin  another.  Most  of  us  begin 
our  active  life  with  this  vice  of  ill-regulated  and  un- 
systematic exertion.  Many  of  us  are  never  cured 
of  it ;  and  to  persons  of  an  active  imagination  it  is 
a  matter  of  extreme  difficulty  to  learn  to  be  thor- 
ough, and  to  measure  the  things  to  be  attempted  by 
the  time  and  strength  which  can  be  spared  for  them. 
Even  to  the  most  persistent  of  us  the  daily  recur- 
rence of  a  task  becomes  tedious  and  irritating,  and 
this  although  we  have  deliberately  set  ourselves  to  it. 
You  will  be  the  happier,  and  the  more  effective 
and  useful  members  of  society,  if  the  spur  of  want, 
the  necessity  for  regular  and  systematic  labor  to  gain 
your  daily  bread,  in  early  life,  fixes  in  you  this  habit 
of  working  patiently  at  a  task  and  completing  it, 


202  GOD  AND  THE   FUTURE   LIFE. 

without  diversion  to  another.  This  supremacy  of 
your  will  over  your  desires,  hard  to  gain,  is  invalu- 
able in  life ;  it  is  the  first  step  towards  the  attain- 
ment of  that  faculty  which  John  Stuart  Mill  defines 
as  "the  power  of  sacrificing  a  present  desire  to  a 
distant  object  or  general  purpose,"  and  which  I  think 
to  be  the  highest  intellectual  attribute  of  man,  the 
possession  and  exercise  of  which  is  necessary,  not 
only  to  the  attainment  of  any  valuable  object  in 
this  life,  but  more  still  to  the  proper  training  of 
our  spirits  for  the  future  life. 

In  all  parts  of  our  lives  we  have  constantly  to 
sacrifice  the  less  to  the  greater,  the  immediate  to 
the  future.  To  secure  and  retain  health  you  must 
go  to  bed  and  rise  at  regular  hours,  eat  at  fixed 
times,  deny  yourself  those  things  which,  while  pleas- 
ant, experience  tells  you  are  hurtful :  that  is  to  say, 
your  will  must  keep  yourself  under  a  number  of 
irritating  restraints.  And  so  from  your  earliest  days 
your  proper  training  consists  in  more  or  less  irksome 
and  often  painful  self-control.  The  acquisition  of 
knowledge  at  school  is  irksome ;  the  daily  recurring 
task  of  the  workman,  in  whatever  calling,  from  the 
lowest  to  the  highest,  is  irksome ;  the  acquisition  of 
any  virtue,  of  the  habit  of  being  or  doing  good,  and 
not  bad,  in  any  one  direction,  is  a  matter  of  difficulty 
and  of  constant  struggle,  and  has  been  so  accounted 


CONDUCT  OF  LIFE.  203 

by  wise  men  in  all  ages.  Only  that  course  of  action 
which  is  useless  to  others,  and  hurtful  to  ourselves, 
seems  easy. 

That  you  should  abhor  a  lie  is  a  matter  of  course ; 
but  to  slight  your  work,  to  do  it  imperfectly,  is  to 
lie.  It  is  to  be  a  sham;  and  when  a  man  is  con- 
tented with  shams  he  has  given  up  a  great  part  of 
his  real  self  to  the  devil.  He  has  consented  to  be 
consciously  dishonest. 

Do  your  best,  therefore ;  but  do  not  do  it  to  excel 
others.  That  is  to  cherish  a  vile  and  vain  spirit. 
Teach  yourself  to  rejoice  in  every  other  man's  suc- 
cess that  is  worthily  gained ;  to  be  pleased  with  the 
ability  shown  by  others,  even  if  it  is  shown  to  your 
own  disadvantage.  "  Let  the  best  man  win  "  is  the 
true  motto  in  life;  and  if  another  wins  over  you, 
all  the  more  you  should  remember  that  if  he  wins 
fairly,  by  greater  excellence  or  ability,  he  ought  to ; 
that  if  he  is  better  fitted  for  your  place  than  you, 
you  have  no  right  there ;  while,  if  he  wins  unfairly, 
that  is  a  contest  into  which  you  cannot,  for  your 
own  self-respect,  engage  with  him. 

Make  your  friends  slowly;  but  remember  that 
real  friendships  must  be  made  in  youth.  A  part  of 
the  strength  of  this  tie  depends  on  tradition.  Your 
friend  of  yesterday  cannot  bear  the  same  relation 
to  you  as  he  who  became  your  friend  a  dozen  years 


204  GOD  AND  THE  FUTUKE  LIFE. 

ago ;  and  no  true  friendship  has  grown  up  or  pros- 
pered without  a  communion  of  sacrifices,  dangers,  or 
trials.  Hence  it  is  said,  and  truly,  that  after  forty 
men  do  not  make  new  friends.  Life  is  not  long 
enough. 

Maintain  a  decent  reserve  with  all  men,  even  with 
your  best  friends. 

Be  careful  to  keep  your  sorrows,  disappointments, 
misfortunes  and  disagreements,  your  affairs  in  gen- 
eral, to  yourself.  The  public  has  nothing  to  do  with 
them,  and  sensible  and  reputable  people  do  all  they 
can  to  avoid  publicity  of  every  kind. 

Any  true  friendship  requires  a  certain  identity  of 
thought  and  aspiration  in  those  who  are  thus  to  be 
joined ;  especially,  I  think,  a  sameness  of  religious 
faith;  for  it  is  scarcely  to  be  supposed  that  two 
persons  who  think  oppositely  or  differently  on  this, 
the  highest  and  most  important  range  of  thought 
attainable  by  mankind,  can  feel  for  each  other  that 
confidence  and  esteem  which  are  necessary  to  friend- 
ship. 

Count  yourself  happy  if  you  have  found  two  or 
three  friends.  More  no  man  is  likely  to  possess. 

Do  not  separate  your  life  entirely  from  that  of  the 
community  in  which  you  live.  "  Forsake  not  the 
assembling  of  yourselves  together,"  says  the  Script- 
ure. The  most  useful  and  important  social  relation 


CONDUCT   OF  LIFE.  205 

you  can  establish  for  yourself  is  membership  in  a 
Christian  church. 

A  church  is  a  society  for  the  encouragement  of 
its  members  in  right  living,  and  for  the  better  or- 
dering of  benevolent  efforts,  the  succor  of  the  poor, 
friendless,  and  suffering.  The  congregation  ought, 
therefore,  to  be  composed  of  men  and  women  in  all 
the  varying  circumstances  of  life.  The  church  is 
nothing  if  it  is  not  democratic.  Under  its  roof  all 
ranks  and  grades,  the  poor  and  the  wealthy,  the 
well-informed  and  the  illiterate,  should  be  brought 
together  in  a  true  brotherhood,  whose  common  Fa- 
ther is  God.  In  such  a  church,  rightly  constituted, 
and  living  together  in  the  relation  of  a  larger  fam- 
ily, you  may  be  sure  that  the  wealthier  and  more 
intelligent  may  learn  more  or  gain  more  of  true 
wisdom  from  their  humbler  brethren,  than  these 
from  the  former;  for  it  holds  true  that  the  indus- 
trious poor  are  God's  peculiar  care. 

The  restraints  thrown  about  you  by  your  member- 
ship in  a  church  are  all  useful  and  important.  Do 
not  think  that  forms  are  useless.  Social  restraints 
are  very  necessary  to  all  men  and  women.  Isolation 
is  dangerous  to  human  beings ;  it  requires  uncom- 
mon strength  of  resolution  and  forethought  not  to 
deteriorate  in  solitude,  and  the  maintenance  of  cer- 
tain forms,  which  is  rightly  insisted  on  by  civilized 


206  GOD   AND  THE   FUTURE   LIFE. 

society  as  a  protection  against  deterioration  not  only 
of  manners  but  of  character,  is  never  so  necessary 
as  in  solitude  or  in  country  life.  Kinglake,  the  his- 
torian, has  a  striking  story  of  an  officer  who  later 
became  a  distinguished  general  in  the  Crimean  War. 
Being  in  early  life  sent  into  the  Canadian  wilderness 
to  superintend  the  rude  labors  of  a  force  of  rude 
men,  which  obliged  him  to  rough  work  all  day,  he, 
to  preserve  himself  from  the  deterioration  which  he 
felt  threatened  him  in  such  a  life,  determined  that 
he  would  every  day  dress  for  dinner  as  carefully,  and 
have  that  meal  served  with  as  much  form  and  cere- 
mony as  if  he  had  been  in  London,  and  spend  the 
evening,  if  in  solitude,  still  with  all  the  semblance 
of  a  high  civilization  about  him.  When  asked  later 
how  he  survived  his  years  in  the  backwoods  he  gave 
this  expedient  as  the  only  reason.  You  may  get  a 
useful  and  important  lesson  from  this. 

Kow,  of  all  social  restraints  and  good  influences 
membership  in  a  really  Christian  church,  one  im- 
bued with  the  essential  spirit  of  Christianity,  yields 
the  most  valuable  and  important  fruits.  In  what  is 
called  "  society,"  in  the  social  circle  formed  by  your 
friends  and  acquaintances,  you  see  only  people  sub- 
stantially of  the  same  walk  in  life,  circumstances, 
and  habits  of  thought  which  you  also  have,  and  the 
chief  object  is  amusement,  rest,  relaxation  from  care, 


CONDUCT  OF  LIFE.  207 

and  the  benefit  of  more  or  less  intelligent  associates. 
In  a  true  church  you  should  meet,  on  much  higher 
ground  and  in  more  important  relations,  men  and 
women  of  many  and  different  walks  in  life.  You 
may  see  there,  as  nowhere  else,  the  real  value  and 
importance  of  a  genuine  democracy.  If  your  rela- 
tions to  your  fellow-members  are  such  as  they  ought 
to  be,  you  will  presently  be  profoundly  impressed 
with  the  fact  that  "manhood  and  worth  from  no 
condition  rise;"  and  if  yon  should  happen  to  be 
even  the  most  learned,  or  the  most  highly  placed, 
or  the  most  wealthy  or  otherwise  prominent  mem- 
ber of  this  society,  you  may  learn,  and  will  learn, 
very  many  lessons  of  goodness,  of  the  highest  moral 
worth,  from  the  lowliest  of  your  fellow -members. 
You  will  see  how  independent  goodness  and  moral 
excellence  are  of  mere  outward  circumstances ;  with 
what  courage  those  submit  to  ills,  with  what  gener- 
osity they  give,  with  what  sound  intuitions  they  see, 
with  what  clear  and  living  faith  they  worship,  whose 
lives  are  far  less  favored  than  your  own.  And  these 
lessons  should  be  of  more  worth  to  you  than  many 
sermons,  and  will  humble  your  pride,  as  you  see  how 
much  better,  how  much  less  selfish,  more  patient,  and 
more  Christlike,  often,  are  the  poor  than  the  wealthy 
and  powerful  of  the  land. 

In  an  ideal  state  of  society  the  average  industri- 


208  GOD   AND  THE   FUTURE   LIFE. 

ous  man  should,  without  pinching  economy,  have 
laid  by  enough  at  fifty  to  enable  him  and  his  wife 
the  remainder  of  their  lives  to  live  in  comfort.  Not 
that  he  should  thereafter  be  idle,  but  that,  retiring 
from  the  pursuit  of  wealth  at  fifty,  he  might  there- 
after give  his  leisure  to  society,  to  works  of  public 
usefulness ;  or,  if  he  were  not  able  or  inclined  for 
this,  to  a  more  natural  and  leisurely  life,  to  the  cul- 
tivation of  his  mind  by  books,  and  the  pursuit  of 
some  special  study. 

By  such  withdrawal  more  room  would  be  left 
and  more  opportunity  given  for  the  young  men 
coming  forward  in  all  pursuits  of  life ;  we  should 
hear  less  of  overcrowding,  and  there  would  be  less 
greed  and  less  deprivation  in  all  the  ranks  of  life. 
In  short,  we  should  see  the  present  intense  and  in 
many  respects  almost  ferocious  struggle  sensibly 
ameliorated.  Of  course  there  is  no  way  by  which 
society  can  compel  men  to  thus  regulate  their  lives 
and  moderate  their  wrishe^  for  it  would  be  in  vain  to 
try  to  make  men  unselfish  by  act  of  Congress.  But 
that  is  no  reason  why  you  should  not,  at  the  begin- 
ning of  your  active  life,  plan  it  on  this  scale. 

But  to  do  this  you  need  not  only  or  merely  to  be 
industrious  and  faithful  in  the  beginning  of  your 
life,  and  not  wasteful ;  what  is  of  far  greater  impor- 
tance is,  that  you  must  accustom  yourself  early  in 


CONDUCT  OF   LIFE.  209 

life  to  be  contented  with  a  moderate  scale  of  living ; 
that  you  should  early  discover  what  is  absolutely  es- 
sential to  intelligent  living,  and  firmly  determine  to 
leave  off  the  unessential ;  that  you  should  accustom 
yourself  to  be  satisfied  w7ith  a  degree  of  comfort  not 
so  great  but  that  you  may  fairly  hope  to  have  laid 
by,  at  the  age  of  fifty,  the  means  of  living  on,  on 
that  scale ;  and,  what  is  still  more  important,  have 
fixed  the  habits  which  wTill  make  you  content  to 
do  so. 

It  is  an  important  help  towards  this  to  teach  your- 
self early  in  life  to  see  pretty  things,  and  to  like 
them,  and  to  have  a  correct  judgment  about  them, 
without  coveting  them.  It  will  take  a  great  deal  of 
practice  to  make  you  perfect  in  this. 

But  remember  that  pure  air,  sunshine,  green  grass 
and  trees,  a  few  flowers,  access  to  good  books,  warmth 
in  winter,  and  a  moderate  table  and  healthful  dress, 
make  up  the  absolute  essentials  of  the  later  part  of 
life. 

It  is  a  great  point  carried  to  have  always  an  ob- 
ject ahead  of  you  in  life.  Until  forty  this  is  easy 
enough,  if  you  are  at  all  of  a  manly  and  enterprising 
disposition.  But  when  you  have  come  to  the  end  of 
your  first  set  of  objects,  when  you  have  gained  the 
standing-place  in  the  world  which  you  sought,  then 
take  care.  At  that  point  many  men  and  women 

14 


210  GOD  AND  THE  FUTURE   LIFE. 

perish  from  mere  inanition.  They  have  secured 
fortune,  or  competence,  and  they  spend  the  rest  of 
their  days  in  accumulating  comforts  and  luxuries,  as 
though  a  pig  should  make  his  sty  more  elaborately 
convenient.  Or  they  sink  into  poor  health,  or  to 
death,  because,  in  fact,  the  end  has  come  for  them. 

If  you  have  means  to  travel,  the  best  time  for  this 
enjoyment  is  after  fifty.  You  will  then  have  read 
enough  to  make  travel  useful  and  profitable. 

Finally,  remember  always  to  maintain  the  true 
balance  and  perspective  in  your  life.  We  are  often 
curious  to  know  how  the  other,  the  future  life,  will 
look  to  us  :  think  sometimes,  How  will  this  life  look 
to  you  from  that  other  side  ?  How  trivial  and  insig- 
nificant many  of  those  which  we  thought  the  most 
important  events,  will  seem  from  that  point  of  view ! 
how  vitally  important  some  things  which  we  thought 
little  of  here !  How  grateful  you  will  be  there  for 
much  that  seemed  hardship,  disappointment,  or  sor- 
row here  at  the  time — how  deleterious  you  will  see 
were  many  events  which  caused  you  satisfaction. 

Yet  that  broader  survey  will  be  the  first  that  can 
give  you  a  true  view  of  your  life  here. 


NOTES. 


I  DID  not  choose  to  encumber  my  pages  with  foot- 
notes, because  these  disturb  the  attention  of  the  read- 
er, and  interrupt  in  his  mind  the  course  of  the  argu- 
ment. But  I  add  here,  at  the  close,  several  extracts, 
referring  each  to  the  chapter  it  is  intended  to  illus- 
trate. 

NOTE  TO  CHAPTER  VIL 

The  following  passage  from  the  "  Ninth  Bridgewater  Trea- 
tise "  of  the  celebrated  mathematician  Charles  Babbage  illus- 
trates so  well,  and  by  so  interesting  an  instance,  the  difference 
between  the  supporters  and  opponents  of  the  theory  of  Evo- 
lution, that,  though  long,  I  give  it  in  full  here.  I  am  the 
more  moved  to  do  this  because  the  volume  from  which  I  take 
it  is  no  longer  easily  accessible  except  in  public  libraries: 

"To  illustrate  the  distinction  between  a  system  to  which 
the  restoring  hand  of  its  contriver  is  applied,  either  frequent- 
lyv,or  at  distant  intervals,  and  one  which  had  received  at  its 
first  formation  the  impress  of  the  will  of  its  author,  foreseeing 
the  varied  but  yet  necessary  laws  of  its  action,  throughout 
the  whole  extent  of  its  existence,  we  must  have  recourse  to 
some  machine,  the  produce  of  human  skill.  But  far  as  all 
such  engines  must  ever  be  placed  at  an  immeasurable  inter- 


212  NOTES. 

val  below  the  simplest  of  Nature's  works,  yet,  from  the  vast- 
ness  of  those  cycles  which  even  human  contrivance  in  some 
cases  unfolds  to  our  view,  we  may  perhaps  be  enabled  to 
form  a  faint  estimate  of  the  magnitude  of  that  lowest  step  in 
the  chain  of  reasoning  which  leads  us  up  to  Nature's  God. 

"The  illustration  which  I  shall  here  employ  will  be  de- 
rived from  the  results  afforded  by  the  Calculating  Engine; 
and  this  I  am  the  more  disposed  to  use,  because  my  own 
views  respecting  the  extent  of  the  laws  of  Nature  were  great- 
ly enlarged  by  considering  it,  and  also  because  it  incidentally 
presents  matter  for  Teflection  on  the  subject  of  inductive 
reasoning.  Nor  will  any  difficulty  arise  from  the  complexity 
of  that  engine;  no  knowledge  of  its  mechanism,  nor  any 
acquaintance  with  mathematical  science,  being  necessary  for 
comprehending  the  illustration,  it  being  sufficient  merely  to 
conceive  that  computations  of  great  complexity  can  be  ef- 
fected by  mechanical  means. 

"Let  the  reader  imagine  that  such  an  engine  has  been  ad- 
justed ;  and  that  it  is  moved  by  a  weight ;  and  that  he  sits 
down  before  it,  and  observes  a  wheel,  which  revolves  through 
a  small  angle  round  its  axis,  at  short  intervals,  presenting  to 
his  eye,  successively,  a  series  of  numbers  engraved  on  its  di- 
vided circumference. 

"Let  the  figures  thus  seen  be  the  series  1,  2,  3,  4,  5,  etc.,  of 
natural  numbers,  each  of  which  exceeds  its  immediate  ante- 
cedent by  unity. 

"  Now,  reader,  let  me  ask  how  long  you  will  have  counted 
before  you  are  firmly  convinced  that  the  engine  has  been  so 
adjusted  that  it  will  continue,  while  its  motion  is  maintained, 
to  produce  the  same  series  of  natural  numbers  ?  Some  minds 
are  so  constituted,  that  after  passing  the  first  hundred  terms, 
they  will  be  satisfied  that  they  are  acquainted  with  the  law. 
After  seeing  five  hundred  terms,  few  will  doubt;  and  after 
the  fifty-thousandth  term  the  propensity  to  believe  that  the 


NOTES.  213 

succeeding  term  will  be  fifty  thousand  and  one  will  be  al- 
most irresistible.  That  term  will  be  fifty  thousand  and  one ; 
and  the  same  regular  succession  will  continue;  the  five-mill- 
ionth and  the  fifty-millionth  term  will  still  appear  in  their 
expected  order;  and  one  unbroken  chain  of  natural  numbers 
will  pass  before  your  eyes,  from  one  up  to  one  hundred  million. 
"  True  to  the  vast  induction  which  has  been  made,  the 
next  succeeding  term  will  be  one  hundred  million  and  one; 
but  the  next  number  presented  by  the  rim  of  the  wheel,  in- 
stead of  being  one  hundred  million  and  two,  is  one  hundred 
million  ten  thousand  and  two.  The  whole  series  from  the 
commencement  being  thus  : 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 


99,999,999 

100,000,000 

regularly  as  far  as  100,000,001 

100,010,002  the  law  changes 

100,030,003 

100,000,004 

100,100,005 

100,150,006 

100,210,007 

100,280,008 


The  law  which  zeemed  at  first  to  govern  this  series  fails  at 


214  NOTES. 

the  hundred  million  and  second  term.    This  term  is  larger 

than  we  expected,  by  10,000.     The  next  term  is  larger  than 

was  anticipated  by  30,000,  and  the  excess  of  each  term  above 

what  we  had  expected  forms  the  following  table : 

10,000 

30,000 

60,000 

100,000 

150,000 


being,  in  fact,  the  series  of  triangular  numbers*  each  multi- 
plied by  10,000. 

"  If  we  now  continue  to  observe  the  numbers  presented  by 
the  wheel,  we  shall  find,  that  for  a  hundred,  or  even  for  a 
thousand  terms,  they  continue  to  follow  the  new  law  relating 
to  the  triangular  numbers ;  but  after  watching  them  for  2761 
terms,  we  find  that  this  law  fails  in  the  case  of  the  2762d 
term. 

"  If  we  continue  to  observe,  we  shall  discover  another  law 
then  coming  into  action,  which  also  is  dependent,  but  in  a 
different  manner,  on  triangular  numbers.  This  will  continue 

*  "The  numbers  1,  3,  6,  10,  15,  21,  28,  etc.,  are  formed  by  adding 
the  successive  terms  of  the  series  of  natural  numbers  thus: 

1  =  1. 
1+2  =  3. 
1+2  +  3  =  6. 
1  +  2  +  3  +  4  =  10,  etc. 

They  are  called  triangular  numbers,  because  a  number  of  points 
corresponding  to  any  term  can  always  be  placed  in  the  form  of  a 
triangle;  for  instance: 


10 


NOTES.  215 

through  about  1340  terms,  when  a  new  law  is  again  intro- 
duced, which  extends  over  about  950  terms ;  and  this  too, 
like  all  its  predecessors,  fails,  and  gives  place  to  other  laws, 
which  appear  at  different  intervals. 

"Now,  it  must  be  remarked,  that  the  law  that  each  number 
presented  ~by  the  engine  is  greater  ~by  unity  than  the  preceding 
number,  which  law  the  observer  had  deduced  from  an  induc- 
tion of  a  hundred  million  instances,  was  not  the  true  law  that 
regulated  its  action;  and  that  the  occurrence  of  the  number 
100,010,002  at  the  100,000,002d  term  was  as  necessary  a  con- 
sequence of  the  original  adjustment,  and  might  have  been  as 
fully  foreknown  at  the  commencement,  as  was  the  regular 
succession  of  any  one  of  the  intermediate  numbers  to  its  im- 
mediate antecedent.  The  same  remark  applies  to  the  next 
apparent  deviation  from. the  new  law,  which  was  founded  on 
an  induction  of  2761  terms,  and  also  to  the  succeeding  law; 
with  this  limitation  only — that  while  their  consecutive  intro- 
duction at  various  definite  intervals  is  a  necessary  consequence 
of  the  mechanical  structure  of  the  engine,  our  knowledge  of 
analysis  does  not  enable  us  to  predict  the  periods  themselves 
at  which  the  more  distant  laws  will  be  introduced. 

"  Such  are  the  facts  which,  by  a  certain  adjustment  of  the 
Calculating  Engine,  would  be  presented  to  the  observer. 
Now,  let  him  imagine  another  engine,  offering  to  him  pre- 
cisely the  same  figures  in  the  same  order  of  succession ;  but 
let  it  be  necessary  for  the  maker  of  that  other  engine,  previ- 
ously to  each  apparent  change  in  the  law,  to  make  some  new 
adjustment  in  the  structure  of  the  engine  itself,  in  order  to 
accomplish  the  ends  proposed.  The  first  engine  must  be 
susceptible  of  having  embodied  in  its  mechanical  structure 
that  more  general  law  of  which  all  the  observed  laws  were 
but  isolated  portions  —  a  law  so  complicated  that  analysis 
itself,  in  its  present  state,  can  scarcely  grasp  the  whole  ques- 
tion. The  second  engine  might  be  of  far  simpler  contrivance ; 


216  NOTES. 

it  must  be  capable  of  receiving  the  laws  impressed  upon  it 
from  without,  but  is  incapable,  by  its  owrn  intrinsic  structure, 
of  changing,  at  definite  periods,  and  in  unlimited  succession, 
those  laws  by  which  it  acts.  Which  of  these  two  engines 
would,  in  the  reader's  opinion,  give  the  higher  proof  of  skill 
in  the  contriver  ?  He  cannot  for  a  moment  hesitate  in  pro- 
nouncing that  that  on  which,  after  its  original  adjustment, 
no  superintendence  was  required,  displayed  far  greater  inge- 
nuity than  that  which  demanded,  at  every  change  in  its 
law,  the  intervention  of  its  contriver. 

******* 

"In  turning  our  views  from  these  simple  consequences  of 
the  juxtaposition  of  a  few  wheels,  it  is  impossible  not  to  per- 
ceive the  parallel  reasoning,  as  applied  to  the  mighty  and  far 
more  complex  phenomena  of  nature.  To  call  into  existence 
all  the  variety  of  vegetable  forms,  as  they  become  fitted  to 
exist,  by  the  successive  adaptations  of  their  parent  earth,  is 
undoubtedly  a  high  exertion  of  creative  power.  When  a 
rich  vegetation  has  covered  the  globe,  to  create  animals 
adapted,  to  that  clothing,  which,  deriving  nourishment  from 
its  luxuriance,  shall  gladden  the  face  of  nature,  is  not  only  a 
high  but  a  benevolent  exertion  of  creative  power.  To  change, 
from  time  to  time,  after  lengthened  periods,  the  races  which 
exist,  as  altered  physical  circumstances  may  render  their  abode 
more  or  less  congenial  to  their  habits,  by  allowing  the  natural 
extinction  of  some  races,  and  by  a  new  creation  of  others 
more  fitted  to  supply  the  place  previously  abandoned,  is  still 
but  the  exercise  of  the  same  benevolent  power.  To  cause  an 
alteration  in  those  physical  circumstances  —  to  add  to  the 
comforts  of  the  newly  created  animals — all  these  acts  imply 
power  of  the  same  order,  a  perpetual  and  benevolent  superin- 
tendence, to  take  advantage  of  altered  circumstances,  for  the 
purpose  of  producing  additional  happiness. 

"  But,  to  have  foreseen,  at  the  creation  of  matter  and  of 


NOTES.  217 

rnind,  that  a  period  would  arrive  when  matter,  assuming  its 
prearranged  combinations,  would  become  susceptible  of  the 
support  of  vegetable  forms;  that  these  should  in  due  time 
themselves  supply  the  pabulum  of  animal  existence;  that 
successive  races  of  giant  forms  or  of  microscopic  beings  should 
at  appointed  periods  necessarily  rise  into  existence,  and  as 
inevitably  yield  to  decay;  and  that  decay  and  death — the 
lot  of  each  individual  existence — should  also  act  with  equal 
power  on  the  races  which  they  constitute;  that  the  extinc- 
tion of  every  race  should  be  as  certain  as  the  death  of  each 
individual;  and  the  advent  of  new  genera  be  as  inevitable  as 
the  destruction  of  their  predecessors;  to  have  foreseen  all 
these  changes,  and  to  have  provided,  by  one  comprehensive 
law,  for  all  that  should  ever  occur,  either  to  the  races  them- 
selves, to  the  individuals  of  which  they  are  composed,  or  to 
the  globe  which  they  inhabit,  manifests  a  degree  of  power 
and  of  knowledge  of  a  far  higher  order." — BABBAGE. 

"  By  a  different  distribution  of  atoms  in  the  primeval  world 
a  different  series  of  living  forms  on  this  earth  would  have 
been  produced.  From  the  same  causes,  acting  according  to 
the  same  laws,  the  same  results  will  follow ;  but  from  differ- 
ent causes,  acting  according  to  the  same  laws,  different  results 
will  follow.  So  far  as  we  can  see,  then,  infinitely  diverse  liv- 
ing creatures  might  have  been  created  consistently  with  the 
theory  of  evolution ;  and  the  precise  reason  why  we  have  a 
backbone,  two  hands  with  opposable  thumbs,  an  erect  stature, 
a  complex  brain,  about  two  hundred  and  twenty-three  bones, 
and  many  other  peculiarities,  is  only  to  be  found  in  the  orig- 
inal act  of  creation.  I  do  not,  any  less  than  Paley,  believe 
that  the  eye  of  man  manifests  design.  I  believe  that  the  eye 
was  gradually  developed,  and  we  can  in  fact  trace  its  gradual 
development  from  the  first  germ  of  a  nerve  affected  by  light- 
rays  in  some  simple  zoophyte.  In  proportion  as  the  eye  be- 
came a  more  accurate  instrument  of  vision  it  enabled  its  pos- 


218  NOTES. 

sessor  the  better  to  escape  destruction,  but  the  ultimate  re- 
sult must  have  been  contained  in  the  aggregate  of  the  causes, 
and  these  causes,  as  far  as  we  can  see,  were  subject  to  the 
arbitrary  choice  of  the  Creator." — JEVONS. 

"Doubtless  there  is  in  nature  some  invariably  acting  me- 
chanism, such  that  from  certain  fixed  conditions  an  invariable 
result  always  emerges.  But  we,  with  our  finite  minds  and 
short  experience,  can  never  penetrate  the  mystery  of  those 
existences  which  embody  the  Will  of  the  Creator,  and  evolve 
it  throughout  time.  We  are  in  the  position  of  spectators 
who  witness  the  productions  of  a  complicated  machine,  but 
are  not  allowed  to  examine  its  intimate  structure.  We  learn 
what  does  happen  and  what  does  appear,  but  if  we  ask  for 
the  reason,  the  answer  would  involve  an  infinite  depth  of 
mystery.  The  simplest  bit  of  matter,  or  the  most  trivial  inci- 
dent, such  as  the  stroke  of  two  billiard-balls,  offers  infinitely 
more  to  learn  than  ever  the  human  intellect  can  fathom.  The 
word  cause  covers  just  as  much  untold  meaning  as  any  of 
the  words  substance,  matter,  thought, existence" — JEVONS. 

NOTE  TO  CHAPTER  VIII. 

The  "  How  "  we  more  and  more  comprehend  ;  the  "  Why  " 
remains  as  much  a  mystery  as  in  the  beginning  of  science. 
Thus,  Tyndall,  in  his  lectures  on  "  Sound,"  explains  the  mech- 
anism of  the  ear,  and  how  when  sound-waves  act  upon  or 
are  propelled  against  the  tympanic  membrane, "  this  is  thrown 
into  vibration,  its  motion  is  transmitted  to  the  ends  of  the 
auditory  nerve,  and  afterward  along  the  nerve  to  the  brain, 
where  the  vibrations  are  translated  into  sound."  This  is  an 
admirably  clear  explanation  of  "  How  "  the  sound-waves  reach 
the  brain;  it  gives  us  the  mechanics  of  the  phenomenon; 
but  Mr.  Tyndali  adds:  "How  it  is  [he  really  means  Why] 
the  motion  of  the  nervous  matter  can  thus  excite  the  con- 


• 

NOTES.  219 

Bciousness  of  sound  is  a  mystery  which  the  human  mind  can- 
not fathom." 

Professor  Tyndall  here,  with  the  frankness  and  honesty  of 
a  true  scientific  mind,  noted  for  his  readers  the  limitation  of 
scientific  research.  There  are,  unfortunately,  men  of  science 
who  do  not  note  this,  even  to  themselves.  Thus,  the  late 
Professor  W.  K.  Clifford  apparently  thought  he  had  explained 
one  stage  of  the  coming  about  of  the  bodies  which  form  the 
universe:  when  he  said  "What  they  [the  gaseous  particles] 
have  done  is  to  fall  together  and  get  solid." 

Now,  that  may  be  a  correct  statement  of  the  method  of  a 
mechanical  operation ;  but  it  does  not  tell  us  Why  they  thus 
fell  together.  Professor  Clifford  taught  that,  in  considering 
the  origin  of  the  universe  and  of  life,  it  was  not  necessary  to 
consider  the  agency  of  a  Creator.  But  there  is,  antecedent  to 
the  question,  Why  the  cosmic  dust  "  fell  together  and  became 
solid,"  still  another :  Why  should  there  have  been  these  par- 
ticles or  atoms  ? 

I  incline  to  insist  here  upon  this  question,  because,  since 
the  chapter  in  which  it  is  suggested  was  written,  I  have 
noticed  an  increasing  disposition,  among  young  students  of 
science  with  whom  I  have  conversed,  to  leave  it  out.  Their 
attention  has  not  been  called  to  it  by  their  teachers;  or  not 
sufficiently  to  produce  that  impression  upon  their  minds 
which,  nevertheless,  ought  to  be  made ;  and  they  are  apt  to 
believe  that  scientific  inquiry  has  penetrated  the  real  mystery 
of  the  universe ;  whereas,  in  fact,  as  all  profound  scientists 
confess,  it  has  only  served  to  magnify  that  mystery  of  the 
origin,  the  Why  of  things.  I  therefore  append  here  a  num- 
ber of  instances,  to  impress  upon  the  reader  that,  while  in 


220  NOTES. 

these  days  we  know  much,  that  knowledge  shows  us  only 
that  of  the  total  to  be  known  we  know,  in  fact,  very  little. 
To  repeat  the  wise  saying  of  Professor  Asa  Gray  :  "  We  know 
more  of  how  things  go  on ;  but  we  know  nothing  of  how 
things  began." 

Tyndali  on  "  Sound  "  says :  "  Light,  like  sound,  is  excited 
by  pulsations  or  wraves ;  and  lights  of  different  colors,  like 
sounds  of  different  pitch,  are  excited  by  different  rates  of 
vibration." 

But  no  one  knows  Why  this  should  be  so. 

He  adds :  "  The  quickest  vibrations  which  strike  the  eye 
have  only  about  twice  the  rapidity  of  the  slowest,  whereas 
the  quickest  vibrations  which  strike  the  ear  as  a  musical 
sound  have  more  than  two  thousand  times  the  rapidity  of 
the  slowest." 

Surely  a  very  wou'derful  statement — but  why  all  this  should 
be  so,  and  why  it  should  not  be  different,  science  does  not 
pretend  to  tell  us. 

We  know  that  a  magnetic  needle,  when  free  to  move,  as- 
sumes a  definite  position,  in  general  north  and  south.  But 
we  do  not  know  Why  it  has  this  quality. 

A  magnet  polarizes  all  masses  of  iron  in  its  neighborhood. 
Why  it  has  this  extraordinary  action  we  do  not  know. 

"  The  homogeneous  is  unstable  and  must  differentiate  itself," 
says  Spencer ;  and  hence,  in  his  opinion,  comes  the  variety 
of  human  phases  of  intellectual  condition. 

It  is  a  very  broad  generalization.  But  suppose  it  to  be 
well-founded  :  Why  is  the  homogeneous  unstable  ? 

We  know  that  "  when  we  warm  a  piece  of  very  cold  ice 
the  absorption  of  heat,  the  temperature,  and  the  dilatation 


NOTES.  221 

of  the  ice  vary  according  to  apparently  simple  laws  until  we 
come  to  the  zero  of  tlie  Centigrade  scale.  Everything  is  then 
changed ;  an  enormous  absorption  of  heat  takes  place  without 
any  rise  of  temperature,  and  the  volume  of  the  ice  decreases 
as  it  changes  into  water."  But  we  do  not  know  why  this 
happens  as  it  does. 

It  has  been  ascertained  that  "most  flowering  plants  bear 
more  seed  when  fertilized  by  pollen  from  another  flower  or 
from  another  plant,  and  are  sometimes  even  sterile  when  fertilized 
by  their  own  pollen.  Hence  the  common  need  of  insect  visitors, 
and  the  relation  thus  established  between  animals  and  plants, 
the  former  involuntarily  aiding  the  reproductive  processes  of 
the  latter.  Flowers  are  often  so  shaped  as  to  favor  the  visits 
of  useful  insects,  and  similarly  the  legs  and  mouths  of  insects 
are  appropriately  formed  to  enable  them  to  visit,  profitably 
to  the  plants,  their  nectar-bearing  flowers." 

All  this  looks  like  benevolent  design  by  a  wise  and  power- 
ful Creator — but  we  do  not  know  whether  He  could  not  have 
attained  the  same  end  by  other  means,  nor  Why  He  selected 
these. 

To  call  a  substance  "  protoplasm  "  surely  does  not  explain 
the  origin  of  life ;  nor  does  it  eliminate  the  idea  of  an  intelli- 
gent Creator.  "  Protoplasm,"  says  Jevons,  "  may  be  chemically 
the  same  substance,  and  the  germ-cell  of  a  man  and  of  a  fish 
may  be  apparently  the  same,  so  far  as  the  microscope  can  de- 
cide; but  if  certain  cells  produce  men,  and  others  as  uniform- 
ly produce  a  species  of  fish,  there  must  be  a  hidden  constitu- 
tion determining  the  extremely  different  result.  If  this  were  not 
so  the  generation  of  every  living  creature  from  the  uniform 
germ  would  have  to  be  regarded  as  a  distinct  act  of  creation." 


222  NOTES. 


NOTE  TO  CHAPTER  IX. 

A  lady  published  some  letters  addressed  by  her  to  Pro- 
fessor Moleschott,  in  which  the  following  sentiments  occur : 

"  The  moral  rule  for  each  man  is  given  by  his  own  nature 
only,  and  is  different,  therefore,  for  each  individual.  What 
are  excesses  and  passions  by  themselves  ?  Nothing  but  a 
larger  or  smaller  overflowing  of  a  perfectly  legitimate  im- 
pulse." 

A  philosopher  belonging  to  the  other  sex  indulges  in  the 
following  dithyrambus : 

"  Enjoyment  is  good,  and  frenzy  and  love  are  good,  but 
hatred  also !  Hatred  answers  well  when  we  cannot  have 
love.  Wealth  is  good,  because  it  can  be  changed  into  enjoy- 
ment. Power  is  good,  because  it  satisfies  our  pride.  Truth 
is  good,  so  long  as  it  gives  us  pleasure ;  but  good  is  lying 
also,  and  perjury,  hypocrisy,  trickery,  flattery,  if  they  secure 
us  any  advantage.  Faithfulness  is  good,  so  long  as  it  pays; 
but  treason  is  good  also,  if  it  fetches  a  higher  price.  Mar- 
riage is  good,  so  long  as  it  makes  us  happy;  but  good  is 
adultery  also  for  every  one  who  is  tired  of  marriage,  or  who 
happens  to  fall  in  love  with  a  married  person.  Fraud  is 
good,  theft,  robbery,  and  murder,  if  they  lead  to  wealth  and 
enjoyment.  Life  is  good,  so  long  as  it  is  a  riddle ;  good  is 
suicide  also  after  the  riddle  has  been  guessed.  But  as  every 
enjoyment  culminates  in  our  being  deceived  and  tired,  and 
as  the  last  pleasure  vanishes  with  the  last  illusion,  he  only 
would  seem  to  be  truly  wise  who  draws  the  last  conclusion 
of  all  science — i.  e..  who  takes  prussic  acid,  and  that  without 
delay."—  Nation,  N.  Y. 

In  Berlin,  in  1878,  a  Socialist  procession,  consisting  of  men 


NOTES.  223 

women  and  children,  marched  through  the  streets  with  a 
banner  which  bore  the  legend :  "  There  is  no  future  life.  Eat 
and  drink.  We  want  no  hereafter." 

NOTE  TO  CHAPTER  XIII. 

A  friend  who  did  me  the  kindness  to  read  my  MS.  ad- 
vised me  to  omit  the  chapter  on  miracles,  on  the  ground 
that  I  had  given  my  attention  to  the  discussion  of  natural 
laws,  that  my  object  was  to  show  the  reasonableness  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  that  the  consideration  of  miracles  might  with 
profit  be  omitted.  I  was  unable  to  agree  with  him;  and 
for  the  reason  that  to  say  that  an  occurrence  is  impossible 
because  it  is  contrary  to  natural  laws,  is  to  assert  that  we 
know  the  limits  of  phenomena,  which,  however,  we  do  not 
know.  But  I  think  it  well  to  insert  here  a  passage  from  the 
Ninth  Bridgewater  Treatise  of  Charles  Babbage,  to  show  in 
what  way  so  clear-headed  a  mathematician  as  that  distin- 
guished author  was  able  to  discuss  the  question  of  "  Miracles :" 

"  It  is  proposed  to  prove  that — 

"  It  is  more  probable  that  any  law,  at  the  knowledge  of  which 
we  have  arrived  by  observation,  shall  be  subject  to  one  of  those 
violations  which,  according  to  Hume's  definition,  constitutes  a 
miracle,  than  that  it  should  not  be  so  subjected. 

"  To  show  the  probability  of  this,  we  may  be  allowed  again 
to  revert  to  the  Calculating  Engine,  and  to  assume  that  it  is 
possible  to  set  the  machine  so  that  it  shall  calculate  any  alge- 
braic law  whatever ;  and  also  possible  so  to  arrange  it  that  at 
any  periods,  however  remote,  the  first  law  shall  be  interrupted 
for  one  or  more  times,  and  be  superseded  by  any  other  law ; 
after  which  the  original  law  shall  again  be  produced,  and  no 
other  deviation  shall  ever  take  place. 

"  Now,  as  all  laws,  which  appear  to  us  regular  and  uniform 


224:  NOTES. 

in  their  course,  and  to  be  subject  to  no  exception,  can  be 
calculated  by  the  engine ;  and  as  each  of  these  laws  may  also 
be  calculated  by  the  same  machine,  subject  to  any  assigned 
interruption,  at  distinct  and  definite  periods ;  each  simple  law 
may  be  interrupted  at  any  point  by  a  portion  of  any  one  of 
all  the  other  simple  laws :  it  follows  that  the  class  of  laws  sub- 
ject to  interruption  is  far  more  extensive  than  that  of  laws  which 
are  uninterrupted.  It  is,  in  fact,  infinitely  more  numerous. 
Therefore,  the  probability  of  any  law  with  which  we  have 
become  acquainted  by  observation  being  part  of  a  much  more 
extensive  law,  and  having,  to  use  mathematical  language,  sin- 
gular points  or  discontinuous  functions  contained  within  it,  is 
very  large. 

"  Perhaps  it  may  be  objected,  that  the  laws  calculated  by 
such  an  engine  are  not  laws  of  nature,  and  that  any  deviation 
from  laws  produced  by  human  mechanism  does  not  come 
within  Hume's  definition  of  miracles.  To  this  it  may  be  an- 
swered, that  a  law  of  nature  has  been  defined  by  Hume  to 
rest  upon  experience,  or  repeated  observation,  just  as  the 
truth  of  testimony  does.  Now,  the  law  produced  by  the  en- 
gine may  be  arrived  at  by  precisely  the  same  means — namely, 
repeated  observation. 

"It  may,  however,  be  desirable  to  explain  further  the  nat- 
ure of  that  evidence  on  which  the  fact,  that  the  engine  pos- 
sesses those  powers,  rests. 

"When  the  Calculating  Engine  has  been  set  to  compute 
the  successive  terms  of  any  given  law,  which  the  observer  is 
told  will  have  an  apparent  exception  (at,  for  example,  the  ten 
million  and  twenty-third  term),  the  observer  is  directed  to 
note  down  the  commencement  of  its  computations ;  and,  by 
comparing  these  results  with  his  own  independent  calcula- 
tions of  the  same  law,  he  may  verify  the  accuracy  of  the  en- 
gine as  far  as  he  chooses.  It  may  then  be  demonstrated  to 
him,  by  the  very  structure  of  the  machine,  that  if  its  motion 


NOTES.  225 

were  continued  it  would,  necessarily,  at  the  end  of  a  very  long 
time,  arrive  at  the  ten-millionth  term  of  the  law  assigned  to 
it ;  and  that,  by  an  equal  necessity,  it  would  have  passed 
through  all  the  intermediate  terms.  The  inquirer  is  now  de- 
sired to  turn  on  the  wheels  with  his  own  hand,  until  they  are 
precisely  in  the  same  situation  as  they  would  have  been  had 
the  engine  itself  gone  on  continuously,  to  the  ten-millionth 
term.  The  machine  is  again  put  in  motion,  and  the  observer 
again  finds  that  each  successive  term,  it  calculates  fulfils  the 
original  law.  But,  after  passing  twenty-two  terms,  he  now 
observes  one  term  which  does  not  fulfil  the  original  law,  but 
which  does  coincide  with  the  predicted  exception. 

"  The  continued  movement  now  again  produces  terms  ac- 
;ording  with  the  first  law,  and  the  observer  may  continue 
to  verify  them  as  long  as  he  wishes.  It  may  then  be  demon- 
strated to  him,  by  the  very  structure  of  the  machine,  that,  if 
its  motion  were  continued,  it  would  be  impossible  that  any 
other  deviation  from  the  apparent  law  could  ever  occur  at 
any  future  time. 

u  Such  is  the  evidence  to  the  observer ;  and  if  the  superin- 
tendent of  the  engine  were,  at  his  request,  to  make  it  calcu- 
late a  great  variety  of  different  laws,  each  interrupted  by 
special  and  remote  exceptions,  he  would  have  ample  ground 
to  believe  in  the  assertion  of  its  director,  that  he  could  so 
arrange  the  engine  that  any  law,  however  complicated,  might 
be  calculated  to  any  assigned  extent,  when  there  should  arise 
one  apparent  exception;  after  which  the  original  law  should 
continue  uninterrupted  forever. 

"  Let  us  now  consider  the  miracle  alluded  to  by  Hume — 
the  restoration  of  a  dead  man  to  life.  According  to  the  defi- 
nition of  that  author,  our  belief  in  such  a  fact  being  contrary 
to  the  laws  of  nature  arises  from  our  uniform  experience 
against  it.  Our  personal  experience  is  small :  we  must  there- 
fore have  recourse  to  testimony;  and  from  that  we  learn  that 

15 


226  NOTES. 

the  dead  are  never  restored  to  life;  and,  consequently,  we 
have  the  uniform  experience  of  all  mankind  since  the  crea- 
tion against  one  assigned  instance  of  a  dead  man  being  so 
restored.  Let  us  now  find  the  numerical  amount  of  this  evi- 
dence. Assuming  the  origin  of  the  human  race  to  have  been 
about  six  thousand  years  ago,  and  taking  thirty  years  as  the 
duration  of  a  generation,  we  have — 

6000 

=  200  generations. 

30 

"And  allowing  that  the  average  population  of  the  earth 
has  been  a  thousand  millions,  we  find  that  there  have  been 
born  and  have  died  since  the  creation 

200  X  1,000,000,000  =  200,000,000,000  individuals. 

"  Such,  then,  according  to  Hume,  are  the  odds  against  the 
truth  of  the  miracle ;  that  is  to  say,  it  is  found  from  experi- 
ence that  it  is  about  two  hundred  thousand  millions  to  one 
against  a  dead  man  having  been  restored  to  life. 

"  Let  us  now  compare  this  with  a  parallel  case  in  the  calcu- 
lations of  the  engine ;  and  let  us  suppose  the  number  above 
stated  to  be  a  hundred  million  times  as  great,  or  that  the 
tnith  of  the  miracles  is  opposed  by  a  number  of  instances, 
expressed  by  twenty  places  of  figures. 

"The  engine  may  be  set  to  count  the  natural  numbers — 1, 
2,  3,  4,  etc. ;  and  it  shall  continue  to  fulfil  that  law,  not  mere- 
ly for  the  number  of  times  just  mentioned — for  that  number 
is  quite  insignificant  among  the  vast  periods  it  involves — but 
the  natural  numbers  shall  follow  in  continual  succession,  un- 
til they  have  reached  an  amount  which  requires  for  its  ex- 
pression above  a  hundred  million  places  of  figures.  If  every 
letter  in  the  volume  now  before  the  reader's  eyes  were 
changed  into  a.  figure,  and  if  all  the  figures  contained  in  a 


NOTES.  227 

thousand  such  volumes  were  arranged  in  order,  the  whole 
together  would  yet  fall  far  short  of  the  vast  induction  the 
observer  would  have  had  in  favor  of  the  truth  of  the  law  of 
natural  numbers.  The  widest  range  of  all  the  cycles  of  as- 
tronomy and  geology  combined  sink  into  insignificance  be- 
fore such  a  period.  Yet  shall  the  engine,  true  to  the  pre- 
diction of  its  director,  after  the  lapse  of  myriads  of  ages,  fulfil 
its  task,  and  give  that  one,  i\\Q  first  and  only  exception  to 
that  time-sanctioned  law.  What  would  have  been  the  chances 
against  the  appearance  of  the  excepted  case,  immediately  prior 
to  its  occurrence  ?  It  would  have  had,  according  to  Hume, 
the  evidence  of  all  experience  against  it,  with  a  force  myriads 
of  times  more  strong  than  that  against  any  miracle."— BAB- 
BAGE. 

"  No  experience  of  finite  duration  can  give  an  exhaustive 
knowledge  of  the  forces  which  are  in  operation.  There  is 
thus  a  double  uncertainty ;  even  supposing  the  universe  as  a 
whole  to  proceed  unchanged,  we  do  not  really  know  the 
universe  as  a  whole.  We  know  only  a  point  in  its  infinite 
extent,  and  a  moment  in  its  infinite  duration." — JEVONS,  Prin- 
ciples of  Science. 

NOTE  TO  CHAPTER  XIV. 

"  So  far  am  I  from  accepting  Kant's  doctrine  that  space  is 
a  necessary  form  of  thought,  that  I  regard  it  as  an  accident, 
and  an  impediment  to  pure  logical  reasoning.  Material  ex- 
istences must  exist  in  space,  no  doubt,  but  intellectual  exist- 
ences may  be  neither  in  space  nor  out  of  space ;  they  may 
have  no  relation  to  space  at  all,  just  as  space  itself  has  no 
relation  to  time.  For  all  that  I  can  see,  then,  there  may  be 
intellectual  existences  to  which  both  time  and  space  are 
nullities, 

"  Now,  among  the  most  unquestionable  rules  of  scientific 
method  is  that  first  law,  that  whatever  phenomenon  is,  is.  We 


228  NOTES. 

must  ignore  no  existence  whatever ;  we  may  variously  inter- 
pret or  explain  its  meaning  and  origin,  but,  if  a  phenomenon 
does  exist,  it  demands  some  kind  of  explanation.  If,  then, 
there  is  to  be  competition  for  scientific  recognition,  the  world 
without  us  must  yield  to  the  undoubted  existence  of  the 
spirit  within.  Our  own  hopes  and  wishes  and  determinations 
are  the  most  undoubted  phenomena  within  the  sphere  of 
consciousness.  If  men  do  act,  feel,  and  live  as  if  they  were 
not  merely  the  brief  products  of  a  casual  conjunction  of 
atoms,  but  the  instruments  of  a  far-reaching  purpose,  are  we 
to  record  all  other  phenomena  and  pass  over  these  ?  We  in- 
vestigate the  instincts  of  the  ant  and  the  bee  and  the  beaver, 
and  discover  that  they  are  led  by  an  inscrutable  agency  to 
work  towards  a  distant  purpose.  Let  us  be  faithful  to  our 
scientific  method,  and  investigate  also  those  instincts  of  the 
human  mind  by  which  man  is  led  to  work  as  if  the  approval 
of  a  Higher  Being  were  the  aim  of  life." — JEVONS. 


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